The inside of the chest was impossibly large, larger than it appeared on the outside. It was filled with murky, grey seawater, which smelled of grime and seaweed powerful enough to make Elf gag. Floating just beneath the surface, covered in a grey sleet, was a mermaid.

She didn’t look anything like Quotinir. She was small, as small as Jian, and her skin was a dark brown-blue. Her tail reminded Elf of a lionfish, fanning in oranges and blues around her waist and turning into long ribbons that disappeared deep into the chest. Her torso was human, her breasts uncovered and small, and her hair was black with orange and gold ribbons rippling through it, cloaking around her head. Her eyes were closed and her lips were partly open, flashing pointed teeth beneath. Elf wanted to reach down and shake her shoulder to see if she reacted, or if she was alive at all. Did mermaids have a pulse??

A mermaid. He had a real mermaid on his ship.

‘Great stars above,’ Mihri whispered.

Jian crashed into his side, jamming his shoulder into Elf’s hard enough to almost send Elf into the chest in front of him.

Jian gave a yelp. ‘Is that a—‘

‘Yep,’ Elf said.

‘Why does Quotinir want a mermaid?’ Mihri asked.

‘No idea,’ Elf said.

‘Is it alive?’ Mihri asked.

Aitan appeared by her side, staring down at the creature with a blank expression, as though he couldn’t comprehend what was in front of him. Elf felt slimy with them all staring down at her naked form. He wondered if he should cover her up with his coat or some blanket, but he couldn’t even tell if she was alive. Carefully, hesitating, he lowered his hand. The water was ice cold, and as he prodded her shoulder, he was surprised at how soft her skin was.

Her eyes shot open.

Elf yelped and leapt back as cold, yellow eyes locked onto his. They were slightly illuminated, glowing against the murky water. They were human shaped, but the irises were too perfectly circular, wavering like ripples in a rock pool. They pulled away from him and fixed on Mihri, and the colour drained from the woman’s face. The inhumane gaze travelled across to Jian, then to Aitan, then back on Elf. Elf couldn’t tear his eyes away.

The hiss that escaped the creature’s mouth was harsh and high enough to make Elf’s ears scream in pain. He staggered back, and the mermaid burst from the water. Her long fingers slashed at the air around him and the ribbons around her waist jabbed upwards like blades. Mihri screamed and brought her book down on the spikes, only to miss as the creature ducked out of the way. Another swipe ripped the book from her hands, throwing it into the water. Mihri fell back against the couch, her eyes wide, and Jian leapt behind the chest, ducking out of reach of the spikes. The mermaid lashed out again, and Aitan screamed.

Claw marks raked down his arm, thick blood welling up across the muscle. Elf grabbed him and pulled him back onto the couch, narrowly missing another swipe. He shoved the bleeding man onto the couch next to Mihri, then turned as the mermaid bolted for the door.

‘Hey!’

Elf caught up to her easily, catching her hand before it could rake across his throat and wrapping his other arm around her waist, lifting her off her feet. She shrieked, a loud, shrill noise that sliced into the deep parts of his brain. She kicked out with human legs, real, human legs that she now had. It took all of Elf’s strength not to lose his grip as he attempted to pin her, eventually managing to catch her arm in a lock around her head. She struggled and hissed at him, stronger than her small demeanour suggested, but he held firm.

‘Easy,’ he said. ‘We don’t need any of this.’

The mermaid stopped struggling.

‘You going to behave?’ he asked her.

He dropped her onto the couch, and Mihri leapt to her feet. The mermaid jumped up with her, but Elf pushed her back down. When the creature didn’t move again, Elf took off his still wet coat and passed it to her. She only stared blankly, and Elf sighed, fixing it over her shoulders and covering her very exposed body. She definitely had legs, skinny and slender with well defined muscles and ten neat toes across her two feet. The mermaid - she definitely wasn’t human enough to be called otherwise - continued to stare at him.

Aitan was still sprawled across the couch next to her, hugging his arm into his chest, blood now covering his clothes. His arm was bleeding freely.

‘Jian, get the kit.’ Elf turned to where Jian was still hiding behind the chest, and the man nodded, rushing for the cupboard.

Elf turned back to the mermaid, sitting straight and tense and staring at him with those impossible eyes. His tongue dried up under her gaze.

‘We’re not going to hurt you,’ he said.

The mermaid only stared at him.

He crouched down in front of her, making sure to stay out of the way of her claws. Next to her, Aitan whimpered in pain as Jian tended to him. Before Quotinir, Elf had heard plenty about mermaids. Heard things, but never seen one. Generally, ships that wandered into their territory got a flash of a tail or a fin before the bottom of their ship was shredded. Smaller boats never made it out. He knew them as creatures who were better at navigating the sea than any human could ever be, and they kept to themselves. Why one was locked in a chest, he had no idea.

‘Can you understand me?’ he asked her.

The mermaid stared.

Elf sighed and turned to Aitan. ‘You okay?’ he asked.

‘I’ll be good, cap’n,’ Aitan said.

‘It’s a deep cut,’ Jian said. He then paused. ‘Aren’t lionfish poisonous?’

‘She’s not a lionfish,’ Elf said. He turned back to the mermaid, wondering if she would add to this point, but she continued to stay mute. Her expression was impossible to read, and Elf wasn’t entirely sure she would experience emotion in the same way humans did.

There was a mermaid on his ship.

‘Can you talk at all?’ he asked her.

The mermaid didn’t answer. She stared at him for a moment longer, then sprang to her feet, making all of them jump. Elf braced, waiting for her to make a break for the door, but instead she dove forward and slipped effortlessly back into the chest. The water rippled, splashing onto the floor, then Mihri’s book flung from somewhere beneath, it’s sodden pages thumping down near her feet. Mihri scooped it up without a word.

‘What now?’ Jian asked.

Elf ran his hands through his hair. ‘I don’t know.’

‘We’re not going to make it to the tundra,’ Aitan said. ‘Not if our location is the same as where we found that ship.’

‘It’s gotta be,’ Elf said. ‘If he could move around, what does he need us for?’

‘There are a lot of reasons why he might need us,’ Mihri said.

‘You know what I mean,’ Elf said. ‘So, we’ve got five days to try every other option.’ Five days until his soul turned to spray, and whatever horrifying thing came with that. He didn’t have any further answers about what was so important about this deal. ‘I want to know who this… young lady is. I want to know where she came from, where those pirates got her, and I want to know how much she’s worth.’

Mihri’s eyes narrowed. ‘Excuse you. If we’re not sacrificing her to save our own lives, we’re not selling her either.’

‘Excuse you,’ Elf growled. ‘I want to know if her being on my ship is going to have every Tom, Dick and Harry chasing us down. I want to know how much of a risk it is for her to be here right now.’

Mihri didn’t say anything.

‘We’re not far from Opaska,’ Jian said. ‘Waters were too rough to allow for that.’

Elf glanced at Aitan. ‘Your contact?’

Aitan shrugged. ‘Maybe.’

‘I’ll take it. Let’s go.’

He pushed around the couch and towards the door, out into the hall. Footsteps echoed after him, and he didn’t have to turn to know it was Mihri.

‘I don’t want to hear it,’ Elf said. ‘Unless you’ve got a better idea.’

‘My soul is on the line too,’ she pointed out.

Elf sighed. ‘I know that. Stop reminding me.’

‘I want us to work together.’

‘Fine.’ He spun on his heel to face her, and she almost crashed into him. She still had that book in her arms, the pages curled and ruined. ‘What ideas do you have?’

She narrowed her eyes. ‘I don’t appreciate your tone.’

‘And I don’t appreciate you being on my ass every second of the day,’ Elf growled. ‘I’m doing my best here. Can you please understand that?’

She sighed. ‘Can you understand that I don’t like that my life is outside of my own control? I’m trying to hold onto… something, and I can’t stand you running off and acting for all of us.’

‘You want to come?’ Elf asked. ‘Then come with us. I’m not going to stop you.’

‘Are we really not giving the mermaid up?’

This question made him pause, his mind blanking.

‘You know if we didn’t stay on course as soon as the storm parted, we were never going to make it,’ Mihri said. ‘And now we’re not even trying. We’re going back the way we came.’

‘Would you rather we didn’t?’ Elf asked.

‘No, I just want to know why.’

Spite, probably. His ma always told him his stubbornness would get him killed. Yet, if he said it out loud, she was going to blow up at him. He sighed. ‘I don’t want to save our own lives by sacrificing someone else.’

Mihri nodded. ‘I was about to make the same argument.’

‘So we’re actually in agreement?’ he asked.

She nodded. ‘Besides, who knows if we’ll be angering something worse by handing her over.’

Elf hadn’t even considered that, but he nodded as though he had. ‘This whole thing is a mess.’

‘You’re telling me,’ Mihri said. ‘All I ask is that you at least tell us what you’re doing before you do it. No more pulling things out of your ass. Please.’

‘Can’t promise anything,’ Elf said.