Chapter 4: The Sea Calls Back

Chapter 4: The Sea Calls Back

Two nights after claiming the astrolabe, the Ranger sailed under a swollen moon. The wind had died to a whisper, and the ship drifted over a glassy expanse of ocean that mirrored the stars. It was the kind of night when even hardened sailors spoke in hushed tones, as if afraid to wake something in the deep.

Edward stood the midnight watch near the bow, leaning on the rail beside Jack. The astrolabe’s acquisition had left an uneasy mood on the crew. Superstitious mutterings whispered below deck, some said they’d stolen from Poseidon himself and the sea would seek payment. Hornigold had dismissed such talk, but even he seemed on edge, checking the strange astrolabe compulsively as it pulled them southeast.

Jack let out a long breath. “Feel that, Ed?”

Edward nodded. “Nothing. No wind, no waves.” The stillness was uncanny; the Ranger’s sails hung limp, and the usual creak of rigging fell silent. It was as though the ocean held its breath around them.

In the quiet, Edward’s thoughts wandered. The astrolabe sat in Hornigold’s cabin now. He could almost sense its presence, like a faint tingling in his bones. What if it truly was cursed? He glanced at Jack. “Do you ever wonder if we’re doing the right thing? Chasing this… thing?”

Jack offered a crooked smile. “Pirates asking about right and wrong? That’s rich.” But then the smile faded. “I do wonder. Feels like we’re chasing a ghost’s promise. But I trust the Captain. And I trust you, for what it’s worth.”

Before Edward could respond, a sound drifted over the water, so faint he thought he imagined it. A distant, melodic humming. He turned his head, listening hard. The sound grew, flowing into soft singing that carried on the still air. The language was unintelligible, but the yearning in it was unmistakable, tugging at his heart like an old sadness.

Jack stiffened. “Do you hear… singing?”

Edward swallowed. “Aye.” The tune beckoned to him. Without realizing, he leaned over the rail, eyes scanning the black water. There, just beyond the reach of the moon’s reflection, a pale shape rippled. Then another.

Two heads broke the surface, female in form, hair streaming like kelp. They smiled up at Edward with lips the color of pearls. Their song wound around his mind, each note a promise of comfort, of home, of love long lost. Edward’s chest ached with an inexplicable longing. Mother? A memory flashed of a warm embrace in childhood, something he’d not let himself remember in years.

“Edward,” the women beneath the waves called, though their lips did not move. Their voices sounded inside his skull, as intimate as a whisper in his ear.

He dimly heard Jack shout his name, but it sounded distant. One leg was already over the rail. Just one dive, one embrace beneath the water… The sea was calling him home.

Suddenly a strong hand seized the back of Edward’s coat. Jack yanked him hard, pulling him off the rail and onto the deck. “Snap out of it!” Jack cried, voice high with alarm.

Edward blinked, the spell faltering. Realization flooded in cold, he had been about to leap into the ocean. Heart hammering, he scrambled back from the rail. “Th-thank you,” he stammered to Jack, shaken.

Around them, other crew were not so lucky. A sailor further down the deck was climbing the rail with a rapturous smile, reaching out toward the water. Another stumbled forward as if in a trance. One by one, the watch fell under the song’s spell.

“Jack, help me!” Edward hissed. Together they lunged at the nearest entranced crewman, a young pirate named Abel. He was teetering on the edge, fingers outstretched. Edward grabbed Abel’s waist while Jack snagged his arm. They hauled him back just as he pitched forward, the three of them tumbling in a heap on the planks.

Abel struggled, cursing and weeping alternately. “I have to go, she’s waiting for me, don’t you hear her?!” he wailed, scratching at Edward’s arms with wild desperation.

Edward gritted his teeth and slapped Abel as hard as he could across the face. The man blinked rapidly, the madness in his eyes receding. He collapsed, sobbing in confusion.

By now, the commotion had roused others below. Hornigold burst onto deck with Israel Hands and Remy at his heels, pistols drawn. “What devilry is this?” Hornigold shouted.

The singing rose in intensity. From all sides of the ship, more of the pale figures floated just beneath the surface, moonlight illuminating their inhuman beauty. Sirens, dozens of them, circling the Ranger like sharks.

Remy swore, making the sign of the cross. Israel Hands leveled his pistol with a shaking hand and fired into the air. The gun’s crack split the night.

For a heartbeat, the song faltered. The sirens’ faces twisted from alluring to angered. One let out a shriek, a sound like a drowning woman’s scream, that chilled Edward’s blood.

“They’re coming!” Jack yelled. As if on cue, a lithe, pale arm hooked over the rail, claws gleaming at the tips of webbed fingers. A siren hauled herself partly up, her once lovely face elongating into something fierce and hungry, seaweed hair clinging to slimy skin.

Hornigold lunged forward with his cutlass drawn and slashed at the creature’s arm. With an unearthly screech, she dropped back into the water, ichor, black blood, streaking the rail.

All around the hull, hissing faces bobbed up, eyes black with wrath. One of the creatures began a new song, this one harsh and discordant. Immediately, Edward felt a wave of despair crash over him, nearly as overwhelming as the previous longing. Beside him, Jack clutched his head, groaning.

“Cover or plug your ears!” Hornigold commanded, slicing at another clawed hand that grasped the gunwale. Men pressed hands to ears, but the very sound vibrated in their bones.

Israel Hands stomped over to the nearest cannon. “Let ’em taste iron!” he roared, lighting the fuse with a tinderbox. Edward barely had time to brace.

BOOM! The cannon blast shattered the night. The heavy ball plunged into the water amongst the throng of sirens. The ocean erupted with a spray of foam and an inhuman wail of pain. Bits of silvery flesh and scales rose to the surface.

The sirens’ song turned to screams. In a flurry of pale forms, they fled, disappearing into the black depths as suddenly as they had come. The oppressive stillness lifted; Edward realized the wind was gusting once again, filling the sails.

An eerie silence fell, broken only by the ragged breathing of the crew. Edward helped Jack to his feet. Jack’s face was bloodless, eyes wide. “That… was too close,” he murmured shakily.

Hornigold wiped his blade, jaw clenched. “Is anyone taken?”

Miraculously, all men were accounted for, though two had nearly drowned, pulled back from the water at the last second. The crew moved about the deck, checking each other, murmuring prayers or curses.

As Abel, the young pirate Edward saved, staggered to his feet, he caught Edward’s hand. “Thank you,” Abel rasped, shamefaced. Edward just nodded, seeing his own lingering terror reflected in the man’s eyes.

Hornigold gathered the shaken crew. He stood tall in the growing lantern light, exuding a confidence Edward envied. “You’ve all heard the legends of sirens,” the captain said evenly. “Now you’ve met them. They won’t be the last nightmare we face on this voyage, mark me. But we prevailed. Keep your wits, trust your brothers, and no spell or beast will take you.”

A gruff cheer answered, thin but sincere. The camaraderie of surviving a brush with the unknown bound them tighter.

As the crew dispersed to repair the minor damages and tend to the shocked, Hornigold approached Edward and Jack. In the captain’s gaze was a flicker of pride. “Quick thinking, you two. You saved lives tonight.”

Edward felt heat rise to his cheeks at the praise. “We just did what we could, sir.”

Hornigold nodded and lowered his voice. “The astrolabe’s bearing hasn’t changed. Whatever lies ahead, I need men who can face it. Keep that courage, lad.”

With that, he strode off, clapping Israel Hands on the back and ordering extra lookouts to be posted.

Jack leaned on the rail, staring into the now empty sea. “It’s as if the ocean itself tried to stop us tonight,” he whispered. “Or warn us.”

Edward couldn’t disagree. The sea had called out to them, with sweet promises and deadly threats. He glanced to the horizon where the compass would lead them by dawn. In the silvery moonlight, the line between sea and sky was impossible to discern, a horizon of shadows.

“They won’t turn back,” Edward said, half to convince himself. “Hornigold won’t.”

Jack sighed, tucking a damp lock of hair under his cap. “No, he won’t. And neither will we.”

Edward laid a hand on the salt-crusted rail. The wood was solid under his fingertips, a reassuring reality. He thought of the family Hornigold had promised, of the future he yearned for. The sea had tested them tonight, called to the secret fears in their hearts. Yet here they remained, alive and together.

“The sea can call all it likes,” Edward said quietly. “We’ll answer on our own terms.”

He wasn’t sure if he spoke bravely or foolishly. But as the Ranger caught a fresh breeze and sailed onward into the night, Edward made a silent vow: Whatever awaited them in the uncharted waters ahead, he would not waver. The sea had called, and he had refused to answer. His destiny would be his own, even in a world of shadows and sirens song.