With a word in a strange language, one that Alina had never heard before but flowed like water on the tongue in ear, that was melodic like the song of sirens, the ice palace began to rumble.
If she had thought the cracking sound when they boarded for the palace was horrible, this was worse. It carried with it the deafening silence of snowfall. The ice beneath their feet rumbled and shook—everyone but Genya and Alina fell to the ground.
The two girls exchanged a look.
"This isn't good," Genya admitted.
"What do we do?" Alina hoped to the saints that the former mermaid would know how to deal with Mother Ocean turning on them.
"Wait it out?"
"Good to know that you have just as little of a clue as we do," Alina grumbled as the ground shook again. She glanced around her—then offered a hand to Nikolai.
"Thanks." He drew one of his swords, which glowed a pale green within he palace. "Huh, I've never seen it do that before."
Luda spoke in her melodic, ancient, and incomprehensible language once more—but Alina was able to recognize a small snatch of it.
Rusalye.
"Oh no."
Genya looked to her. "You understood that?"
"No, just—" Alina pushed everyone back as a tide of water swept towards them from Luda's trident. "Just Rusalye."
"Great, just what we need." Zoya drew her own sword, which Alina realized was also glowing. "A sea monster."
"Ah, don't be such a pessimist, Zoya, we've gotten ourself out of worse scrapes than this." Nikolai somehow managed to smile as he wound up his blade, preparing his strike.
"Careful, we don't want to lose her patronage," Genya warned.
"I wouldn't worry about that right now," Alina muttered. "Can you try reasoning with her? Do you understand what she's saying, then?"
"Of course I do, every mermaid knows the language of the ocean and our gods," Genya scoffed.
Her eyes glowed blue as she then redirected another wave sent at them.
"She's going to flood this place at this rate," Zoya grumbled.
"Hang on, we've got to come up with a plan and stop snarking at each other." Alina put her hands up, gesturing for everyone to stop what they were doing. "Genya, what's she doing?"
"Summoning the Ice Dragon to kill the heretics who betrayed the code of her Court," Genya said.
"That's very specific." Nikolai looked up and down at his blade. "So I take it these probably aren't helping the situation?"
"Probably not." Genya closed her eyes. "I can feel the water—he's coming."
"Rusalye." As soon as Alina said that, the ice rumbled once more beneath their feet.
Luckily, they did not fall.
Unluckily for them, that was when Rusalye broke through the ice and started breathing icefire at them.
"We didn't trap you! Come on!" Nikolai cried as they all ran to dive behind piles of treasure.
"I don't think she cares much about that." Zoya sheathed her sword. "We've got to do something to get her back to normal, back on our side. She's the only hope we have of breaking our curse."
"Well, it's not like I know how to fight this thing!" Nikolai cried. "Genya, you're the child of the goddess—do you know what to do?"
"Mermaids aren't exactly interested in fighting Mother Ocean," Genya shot back. "Because that's a losing game! She is the ocean, she is unbeatable!"
Alina closed her eyes. So this was how she was going to die. Surrounded by bickering friends as a goddess who she supposedly had the blessing of killed them because she was as fickle as her domain.
It was better than her expectations in Port Keramzin, if she was being honest.
With her eyes closed, her fingers to the ice—she could feel a call in her blood. Cold as ice and as familiar as the water and the moonlight was to her, it was calling to the other side of the pile of gold she was ducking behind.
She frowned—it was the ice dragon calling to her.
It wasn't a voice, or a song. Not exactly. It was the emotions of a lament, the out reaching of someone intensely lonely, who needed a hand, who needed compassion.
The ice dragon was once a prince, in all the old stories. A prince who had a heart of ice, but came to regret the action that had gotten him cursed. That part of the story, Alina couldn't recall.
But she did remember that he took beautiful young women, and cried when they drowned. He'd hoped for companionship, for a prize that could fill the emptiness within.
But he'd never found that.
Alina reached a hand to her heart. The call was stronger. She knew she had to trust her intuition, what her blood was telling her.
Trusting in the intuition that every sailor knows, she rose to her feet.
"Alina, what are you doing?" Nikolai reached for her hand.
She met his eyes—she was surprised at how worried he seemed for her.
"It's okay, trust me."
He looked like he was going to argue, but then nodded.
"Aye, I believe in you."
She smiled serenely, and turned to face the dragon.
It was as if the entire world slowed, just like when she was drowning after she fainted into the ocean at Port Keramzin the day that all of this had begun. It was like her dream of the two lonely gods of the New World's oceans.
Rusalye did not expel fire made of ice at her. Instead he regarded her with a sad curiosity. He bowed his head to her as she approached. She reached out to the creature, touching his scales.
The creature leaned into her touch—she realized that no one but Luda had been gentle to him. Not for so long.
"May I someday break your curse, too," Alina whispered.
That was when the water stopped. It did not move or freeze, it stayed completely in place. Then it all flowed outward, and the goddess closed her eyes, as if she were withdrawing into herself.
When she opened her eyes again, the gentler Luda had returned.
"I apologize, I lost myself." Luda glanced at her trident. "The power has a way of doing that."
She then smiled as the other pirates rose. "That will not happen again. Now, it is time to gather my court. It is time for me to meet my love at World's End."