Adelaide and the Merfolk: The Adelaide Series, #3

By Mustang Rabbit

Desperate for the dust to settle, Adelaide is busy picking up the pieces of her last adventure. If only the trickster god who started stalking her would make himself useful.  

 

But when she's abducted by powerful merfolk, those pieces no longer matter. Instead, she's dragged away and made to face her dangerous past.

 

Caught up in a game that only knows losers, Adelaide quickly needs to learn that you don't always get to choose your responsibilities. And that when your enemies conspire to collide with your allies, resistance is futile…

 

…until it becomes a matter of life and death.

 

Will Adelaide be able to lie, connive, and console her way through yet another adventure? Or will this one be her last?

 

Grab the third book in this exciting YA fantasy series and find out!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mustang Rabbit
• Release date: Apr 18, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393563501

Book preview

Chapter One

Adelaide’s heart danced against her ribs with joy. Blood beat a rhythm just under her skin. Her feet practically sailed up the path Raven had marked into the pink and yellow stones of the upper reaches of the island, high above the waves. When the trees gaped open now and then one could see the ocean for leagues, with scattered islands dropped like jewels in the water as far as the eye could see in every direction.

Adelaide shivered. Everything was alive. She was alive. Raven was alive. Charlie was alive. The jungle and the island resonated, full of green and yellow, red and pink. Bright. Like the sun. Or Raven’s eyes. It had barely been an hour since Adelaide had waded to shore and hugged Raven after their long separation. The wonder and relief of no longer being alone was hardly wearing off.

The pink crystalline structures of the granite spires at the top of the island structure appeared monolithic and smooth. The yellow veins scaring their surfaces only glowed into existence now and again as the sun hit them right, causing them to blaze with bright flashes of reflection. It was as if the world had decided to sing and celebrate at a celebration of Adelaide’s own private devising. The disastrous site of Wein’s hovels, and the pirates turned beasts with all their squabbles and dangers could be a distant memory for all Adelaide wanted to think of them. 

She and Raven were moving up through the smooth twisting trees and heavy fines on a path of dirt and blobs of soft pink stone that matched the massive granite spirals just ahead. It was too dense for Charlie to join them, though he floated overhead, dropping comments now and again. The cats, Kitty and Tibby, darted back and forth underfoot, sniffing at this and that.

Raven tugged on Adelaide’s hand. She pulled her up the last step of many steps into a small open space. They were high on the island but only at the bare base of one of the spires which rose out a massive clump of stone. It was the size of a tiny mountain, with steep drops on the right and left. Trees and bushes grew all around, some of it crawling out of crevices in the vertical precipices, creating the illusion that the open space was floating above the ocean in a green cloud.

You found a cave. Adelaide ran forward. There was a jagged opening in the pink rock at the base of the pink monolithe.

Behind her, Raven laughed. Not quite large enough for Charlie, but he says he doesn’t mind.

Adelaide paused, just at the opening, Can I go in?

Raven grinned and made pushing motions with her fingers. Our things are not all unpacked yet. Until we found you, all I wanted to do was get it safe and dry.

Adelaide stuck her head inside. There was light from openings in the pink rock. The cave was not at all damp, but rather dry and airy. It was perfect. A sudden thought made her turn around, almost bumping into Raven. She grabbed Raven’s hand. Were you worried?

Of course, terribly. Raven pushed a bit of hair away from Adelaide’s eyes. "Wein’s things were scattered all over, and you’d left your books behind in the treehouse on the beach.

She scried on you last night.

Charlie landed in the open space, his wings just brushing against the large leaves of the trees.

I’m sorry. Adelaide threw her arms around Raven and hugged her. I didn’t mean to make you worried. I just meant to go to town with Sloop to buy food and come right back but then the pirates took me prisoner and I had to agree to go to Zeban for him, and...and...

I know. You told me. Raven patted Adelaide on the back. And I have to say, it was rather amusing, watching you and the beasts on the ship. Who knew a python would have so much luck climbing up a mast?

Adelaide giggled and then clapped a hand over her mouth. It shouldn’t be funny, she grimaced. I mean, it kinda is, but it also shouldn’t be. It’s really awful for them. Think of all the things they can’t do anymore.

Raven shrugged. Considering what they did to you, I can’t say I care. You’re mine, and they put you in harm’s way.

Only because they were desperate.

Raven quirked an eyebrow. They were going to sell you as a slave.

Adelaide twisted her hands in the scarf around her waist. There is that.

Raven just looked at her and shook her head.

Adelaide huffed and stuck out her chin. You think I’m silly, don’t you? Just like the Imperator.

No. Raven sank down onto the ground and stretched out her legs, her back against the cliff wall that rose overhead, I think you’ve come to see things their way, and there are many more ways to see it. 

Adelaide plopped down beside Raven and took her hand. She couldn’t seem to stop touching the sorceress, now that they were together again. Charlie flopped his tail across Adelaide’s knees and she wrapped one hand around the end of it, and kept her other hand in Raven’s.

So, what now?

Raven yawned a little. Now we rest for a bit. And then I’ll have a nice chat with Wein to find out what the hell he did.

Have at. Adelaide shuddered dramatically and rolled her eyes, making Charlie snicker. Smoke sputtered out of his nose. I want nothing more to do with that wizard. He stinks, he hardly works, and he’s always complaining.

Yes, well, there was a time when he was none of those things. Raven closed her eyes. Forgive me, ‘Laide, but scrying isn’t easy work.

She was asleep almost instantly, her head sliding down onto Adelaide’s shoulder.

Adelaide raised an eyebrow and shot Charlie a questioning look.

She may have been scrying for a long time. We weren’t sure what you were doing on a ship full of animals, or if you were in trouble or in charge. Charlie stretched out, curling up against Adelaide’s free side.

Adelaide wiggled around, letting Raven lay between her legs. Asleep, the sorceress looked even younger than when she was awake. Only the faintest of lines edged her eyes. Her small hands curled in on themselves, cupped together in front of her face.

Warmth, even deeper than before, bloomed inside Adelaide’s chest. She smoothed back Raven’s hair, awed by the sorceress’s trust. Tears pricked the edges of her eyes. Charlie behind her, Raven in her lap. The world was almost perfect.

There was movement from the cave. Kitty waddled out, Tibby on his tail. They climbed up over Adelaide’s legs and made themselves comfortable in her lap, pressed against Raven’s back and front.

Now the world was perfect.

Adelaide closed her eyes and let her head rest against Charlie. A nap sounded luxurious.

ADELAIDE WOKE JUST as Raven began rousing. A quick glance above showed her that it was just a little before evening. Raven stretched, her shirt riding up and displaying a bit of soft stomach. Then she dropped her arms again and shook herself. At least it’s warmer down here.

Adelaide rolled her shoulders and pulled her hat off, to run her fingers through her hair. You didn’t like the cold.

Raven shivered. I like the sun. Why do you think the fire was always roaring?

Adelaide shrugged. She’d just been glad to be warm.

Raven stood and offered Adelaide a hand. Bits of Adelaide’s rear were numb and tingling. She rubbed them out with her fist and rolled her shoulders and neck. Charlie stood and shook out his wings.

Hands rubbing together, Raven eyed the path back down to the rest of the island. I should warn you, this could get intense.

Adelaide drew her eyebrows together. I don’t understand.

Me and Wein.

Adelaide chanced a glance back at Charlie. The dragon was avoiding Adelaide’s eyes.

Know something you want to share? Adelaide sent him.

He sniffed delicately. Do not get between a wizard and a sorceress.

Oh, Charlie, Raven flashed a smile full of teeth, "I’ll start nicely."

Adelaide groaned. I do not like that look, Raven.

Raven chuckled.

TO SAY THE FIGHT WAS spectacular would be to put it mildly. Adelaide and Raven, with the cats, made it down the mountain before sunset. Charlie met them in the clearing. Most of the pirates were still resting, enjoying the relief of solid land, fresh water that wasn’t locked in barrels they couldn’t open without thumbs, and fresh food that could be harvested or hunted with their new bodies. A great number of them were lounging on the grass and Adelaide could make out even more in the surrounding trees. Ragnar, in all his equestrian majesty, was drowsing against a tree, head hanging low, his left back leg tucked up under him, hoof just off the ground.

Wein, however, had located his liquor stash. He appeared to have drunk himself into half a stupor in the middle of the grass and was lying there, bottle in hand, staring up at the dimming sky when Raven and Adelaide came out of the trees.

Adelaide flashed Raven a tight smile and gathered both cats up in her arms. He’s all yours.

Raven walked over to Wein. He opened one eye as she leaned over him.

So, what’s this my student tells me about you calling on gods, Wein? We don’t call on the gods. Once you call on a god, anything can happen!

Wein scrambled to his feet, eyes wide.

R-raven! When did you get here?

Adelaide shook her head. It figured that Wein had been so focused on finding drink that he’d missed a dragon and a sorceress waiting for them on the beach.

I got here by dragon. Raven crossed her arms. You, however, Raven glanced around, seem to have been lucky to get here by ship, a ship full of god transfigured men. Care to explain?

They kidnapped me! Wein straightened up to his full ragged height. I was desperate.

You called on the god of tricks! Raven’s arms came loose. Her fingers folded into fists. You called down Quarius! Do you know why he’s called Quarius the Capricious? Do you remember anything from our lessons? Or did the drink drive that out of your head too!

Wein backpedaled. It was the only summoning I could think of! Besides, if it wasn’t for your student, I wouldn’t have been kidnapped anyway!

That I doubt. Raven raised both eyebrows. Seems you were afraid of the pirates before my student ever arrived. Made some sort of deal with the god of rats. Just how many gods are you messing with, Wein?

Wein’s face turned a mottled red color.

Raven’s eyes snapped. Two spots of color appeared on her cheeks. A crackling sound filled the air.

Adelaide’s eyes grew wide. There was lighting, sizzling around Raven’s fist. Real, life, sizzling lightning, in a ball.

Adelaide curled her arms tighter around Kitty and Tibby, backing away, towards the beach. Around her, the beast pirates also began moving, slowly.

Wein growled. Don’t you dare, Raven. You might pretend to be all high and mighty and perfect, he spat the last word with the same force someone would spit slime, but you’re no better than me. Not when you’re after something. You’ll do anything, work with anyone, when you want something. Sacrifice anyone too. 

Me? Really Wein, me sacrifice anyone? You sold the dog!

Adelaide shuffled back into the trees. The lightning in Raven’s hand was climbing up her wrist. For the first time, the idea of Raven as a full blown mythical sorceress was starting to feel real.

A little too real.

Wein leaned in towards Raven. That mutt had it coming!

That MUTT was my friend!

Animals can’t be friends.

Raven’s arm shot out. Lighting snapped from the ends of her fingers. Tendrils, like spider legs, exploded from her fingertips. They wrapped around the nearest dilapidated shed, lighting up the warped boards and broken roof in bright white light.

Raven closed her fist.

The lightning tightened, cracking around the frame of the shed. It snapped and crackled, drawing in on itself, as if being crushed by invisible external forces.

For a second, it wobbled in space, lit up, a churning ball of broken broads shimmering with cracking streaks of light. Adelaide gripped the cats, transfixed. She couldn’t move. She wasn’t even really aware of herself. All that was possible was staring.

Raven was a sorceress. A living, breathing sorceress. Why hadn’t she used this power on King Croban’s knights?

The ball exploded. Bits of electricity skittered across the grass, followed by splintering boards. Men and beasts screamed.

Ragnar bellowed. To the beach!

Adelaide spun on her heel. She ran.

ANOTHER EXPLOSION ASSAULTED Adelaide’s ears as her feet hit the sand. She didn’t stop until she was thigh deep in the water. The pirates were with her, even Ragnar, though he stopped on the very edge of the water and looked back, tail switching furiously.

So that’s your teacher, he snapped.

Yep, that’s Raven. Adelaide shivered.

Is she a god, too? Coran muttered. His giant snake form coiled in on itself in the shallows between Ragnar and the rest of the crew.

Adelaide shivered. Pretty sure she’s human.

Bright covered sparks flew into the air over the trees, lighting up the darkening sky with pink and orange specks of flourescence.

Not like any human I’ve heard of. Cyril, the panda bear pirate rubbed his paws up and down his damp belly, both eyes on the trail. You think she’s coming after us next?

Adelaide bit her lip. Pretty sure you didn’t mess up as badly as Wein.

How so? Adelaide didn’t see who asked. It was one of the other pirates, deeper in the water behind her.

Yes, I would like to know the basis of your judgement, Del, Ragnar glanced over his shoulder.

You didn’t summon a god.

Ragnar’s nostrils flared and his mane twitched. We did kidnap you.

Evidently, one is worse than the other. Adelaide flinched as another explosion lit up the sky. That and I think Raven hates vermin.

Ver-what? Someone else, also out of Adelaide’s sight, asked.

Rats. Adelaide hunched up her shoulder. Raven hates rats, or anything dirty.

The cat-man sniffed his armpit and looked around suspiciously. Adelaide craned her head up at the sky. As she had suspected, Charlie was high overhead, watching.

What’s going on? She sent him.

She’s blowing up all shacks, and yelling at him. And he’s yelling back. Oh, no.

Adelaide gulped. Don’t do that, Charlie. What happened!?

Wein’s fighting back. He summoned a lechor sprite.

Adelaide gnawed on her lip. It was going to be raw before this was over. What’s a lechor sprite?

Charlie’s voice came back pained. A sprite that eats magic.

Adelaide sank deeper into the water. Tell me she’s winning, Charlie.

A roar of fire filled the air. Flames thirty feet tall burst above the canopy of the trees. Everyone took three steps back, deeper into the water. Even Ragnar shuddered. Just as suddenly, it died down.

Sprite’s gone. Charlie’s mental voice sounded strained. I think Wein’s missing most his of clothes.

Adelaide put her face into the scruff of Kitty’s neck.

Charlie cussed inside her head. She looked up to see him wheeling in tighter and tighter circles. Then his wings opened and he glided down onto the beach and landed between Ragnar and a great white bull pirate. Water surged away from his hindquarters and lapped to an equilibrium.

Charlie shook his head and huffed by pulling his wings up towards his neck. I can’t watch.

Adelaide sidled up next to him and pressed against his front leg. The silence coming from the trees was deafening.

After another twenty or thirty breaths, it seemed like the battle might have died out. Then there was a high-pitched scream, Wein’s voice, followed by an angry shriek from Raven. Light lit the sky, in brilliant rainbows. And then flashed out. For a long moment, Adelaide could see nothing. It had been too bright, too sudden. She blinked furiously. The cats in her arms twisted and whimpered.

Charlie shuddered and sagged onto his belly. I think it’s over.

Over? Adelaide shook her head. Over! Charlie, what the blooming hell was that?

Charlie just shook his head and put his snout in the sand.

FOR A VERY LONG TIME, no one moved. Small sounds floated from the open water. Adelaide craned her head behind her. No one was moving. At least not among the pirates. But something was.

She swallowed, wetting her throat. A sense of danger, not from the direction of Raven and Wein crawled up her arms.

I think there’s something out there, she muttered.

Ragnar’s head came up at attention. Out where.

Adelaide nodded towards the deeper water. Out there. Maybe thirty or so feet. It was just a flash, like something swimming below the surface. Something large.

The pirates shifted, turning their variously shaped heads this way and that. The large white bull hunched his shoulders and then galloped up to the beach and turned, looking out over the deeper blue.

It’s got my back tingling. He shook water off his coat and continued to glare into the unbroken surface. Slowly, casting wary looks behind, everyone else joined him on the beach.

Charlie lifted his snout from the sand and watched the water as well.

Perhaps there are sharks.

Adelaide hugged the cats close and shivered. For some reason, she didn’t think it was sharks. She’d seen sharks with Sloop and later with the pirates while sailing. They’d never made her back crawl like this. Like something was watching.

A glance at the jungle and she shivered. Which was worse, underwater hunters or explosive, sprite summoning magic maniacs?

It was very late before anyone even tried to sleep, and even then, Ragnar posted watches. Adelaide decided to retreat in her treehouse, for lack of a better place. If Charlie wasn’t leaving the beach, then Raven probably wasn’t in the mood for company.

Chapter Two

Adelaide slammed the palm of her hand onto her forehead and glared at Raven. You want me to run the island?

She and Raven were in the forest, on the pink cliffs above Wein’s clearing, with both cats looking sleepy but present on the warm rocks.

Raven folded her arms under her breasts and grinned. Yes.

Why?

It’s the logical choice. If I run it, then I’ll never get my work done and everyone will want me to magically fix their problems. Sorceress, remember?

I think everyone remembers, after last night! Adelaide glared. What about Ragnar?

Raven smirked. He’s a horse. A fine-looking horse, but a horse. His ability to lead is limited, especially beyond his crew. I doubt Wein would answer to him.

Adelaide shuddered and ran her hands down her arms. The horrors she was imagining weren’t rats, though. She was safe from the rodents, at the very least. If there was a rat left on the island now, it was hiding somewhere dark and deep.

Raven lifted one eyebrow. I don’t suppose you want Wein to lead?

Adelaide curled her lip back in a snarl. I doubt he could. He’s three sheets to the wind right now.

Raven pressed her lips together. Yes. Something will have to be done about that.

Adelaide rubbed her eyes and forced air out through her nose. Let me get this straight, Raven. You want me to lead a settlement of pirates-turned-talking animals on a drunk wizard’s island with the Imperator’s navy out there looking for them and you go off to a cave somewhere up here and do who knows what with your books and your magic. Which I know you have now. It’s not all just deep breathing and moving qi like you wanted me to believe.

Raven’s eyes danced. Why was she so happy? Yes, exactly. Though I suspect you will have some humans here, eventually. Charlie says some of them want to be with their families.

Adelaide ran the back of her wrist over her forehead. Raven, I’m not sure you’ve noticed, but I’m eighteen! Maybe nineteen at best. Those are grown men, err, men in animal bodies. They’ve killed people. I’ve seen them do it, well heard them do it. Being locked in a cage means I didn’t actually see it. And you think they’ll listen to me?

There was something positively wicked in Raven’s look and the playful twist of her mouth. Charlie can back you up. He needs to do something besides look after Tibby.

Forget needing back up, Adelaide threw her arms wide, "what about knowing how to run a damn settlement? We’re two steps up from shipwrecked and you’re talking about building a functioning society on this bit of land surrounded by water. Did you know that I never learned to swim? Ever think of that before sending me to an island? I could literally