CHAPTER THREE

With dawn came the soft, shimmering light and the diamond drops of dew on the grass.

And with dawn came calisthenics.

Annika liked calisthenics. She liked dropping down and giving Doyle twenty. The squats and lunges, the shuffles and the jumping jacks were like dancing—the moans and grunts and pants (especially from Sasha) always made her laugh.

Sawyer called Doyle a fucking drill sergeant, and that made her laugh, too. She understood the fuck word was a curse—so versatile!—and used a lot during calisthenics. She understood drill was a tool. But the only sergeants she knew were the sergeant majors, the name land people gave the little striped fish who liked swimming in the reef.

Imagining big, handsome Doyle as a little fish boring into coral made her laugh through her pull-ups.

“What’s so funny?” Sweaty, face pink from exertion, Sasha scowled as she braced for her own pull-ups.

“Doyle is a drill sergeant major. Sawyer said.”

“A . . .” Sasha sneered over at Doyle, who stood signaling her to start. “You’re now a fish,” she called out to him, then mumbled, “God, help me.”

She did one cleanly, a second reasonably well, and a third very shakily, her face going toward red with effort, wet with fresh sweat. Her arms visibly trembled.

Annika started to applaud, and Sasha hissed.

“I’ve got one more. Goddamn it.”

Annika held her breath because Sasha made a sound of awful pain, almost a scream, but her friend pulled up on her trembling arms, managed the fourth before she dropped to the ground in a panting heap.

“Good job,” Doyle told her. “Sloppy form, but gutsy. Shoot for five tomorrow.”

“Shoot for five, my butt. I might shoot you tomorrow.”

“That’s the spirit.” Reaching down, he hauled her to her feet and out of the way. “You’re up, Gwin.”

Riley set, did a smooth dozen in the time it had taken Sasha to strain out four.

“I might shoot you, too,” Sasha said darkly. “I might just be in the mood for a double homicide.”

“You did four,” Annika reminded her. “The first time, you couldn’t do even one, but today, you did four.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Then Sasha blew out a long breath. “Yeah,” she said in a stronger tone. “And tomorrow I’ll shoot for five.”

They had breakfast, and did the morning chores Sasha had listed on the new chart. Then it was time to hike to the marina.

Annika wanted to run. She could barely wait to dive into the sea. But she liked watching how Bran and Sasha held hands, or how Doyle and Riley argued over who would drive the boat.

The air smelled beautiful, with the breeze bringing scents of sea and flowers, of the lemons, of the grass. The walk provided gardens to admire, the flight of birds. And time with Sawyer.

“Will you take pictures in the water?”

“Yeah, I’m set for it.”

“If you taught me how to use the camera, I could take pictures of you. When you take them, you aren’t in the picture.”

“I got a couple selfies.” He demonstrated by holding his arm out, pretended to click a camera.

“Oh! That’s clever.”

“But I can teach you. Never hurts to have a backup for documenting.”

“Then I can help you take pictures in the water, and out of the water. I hope we can walk in the hills.” She gestured toward the mountains. “I know we might find her there, have to fight her there, and the quest is the most important. But the walk would be exciting and new. All the things to see we haven’t seen before.”

He gave her a shoulder bump she knew was a sign of affection. “Gotta have the bright side.”

“The bright side helps us face the dark.”

“Can’t argue.”

“In the last battle, I was afraid. I believe we’ll win, we’ll do what we’re meant to do, but I was afraid.”

In a gesture she knew was affection and comfort, he brushed her arm with his hand. It made her want to sigh.

“We’re all afraid, Anni.”

Surprised, she looked up at him. “No one seemed afraid but me.”

“Every last one of us,” he corrected. “If we weren’t afraid, we’d be crazy. You know what courage is.” He said it, didn’t ask it, but she nodded.

“It’s bravery. It’s facing the dark.”

“That’s right. It’s facing the dark, even when you’re afraid. That’s every one of us, too.”

She tipped her head toward his shoulder, knowing since he thought her brave, she could be braver still.

“Why don’t you have a mate?”

“A . . . Well, um, I’ve had to move around a lot. Getting to this point, it’s taken some doing.”

“But there was sex?”

He took off his hat, swiped his fingers through the thick, streaky blond hair she wanted to swipe hers through. After he settled the hat again, he pushed his hands into his pockets.

“You know, if you want to know about that kind of thing, you should talk to Riley or Sasha.”

“Oh, I know about sex. It’s not so different in my world. We can have sex as we like. It’s a bright side.”

He had to laugh. “Definitely qualifies.”

“But when we find our mate, when we pledge, there’s no other after. Like Bran and Sasha, there is only one.”

“That’s nice. It’s what most people hope for.”

“So there has been sex for you, but no mate.”

“There you go.”

The way went narrow, with buildings closing in. He distracted her from talk of sex by pointing to a shop window.

“Oh, we can come back to shop! I have the itch.”

“Tell me. You’ve always got a shopping itch.”

“No, no, the payment. The . . . scratch!”

Though he grinned, he draped an arm over her shoulders to steer her away from a shop window. “Right.”

“Look at the pretty food.”

Pastries and little cakes, pretty as jewels, tempted behind the glass.

“We should definitely grab some pastries to take home. And down there? Gelato.”

“What is it?”

“Outstanding.”

“Outstanding,” she repeated as they navigated the steep, narrow street.

Sawyer took her hand. The retail shops might not be open yet, but he’d had the experience of shopping with her in Corfu, and knew she could run off impulsively, like a terrier after a squirrel.

“I’ll buy you a gelato on the way back,” he promised.

“Thank you.”

“But we’ve got to head straight to the boat now.”

“This village? It’s all very big, and very small. They have vegetables and fruit there—” She pointed to a stand. “Look at the colors, the shapes. I don’t know what some of them are. Are they all for eating?”

“Yeah. Some as they are. Some you want to cook first.”

She looked at everything, absorbed everything. He found it part of her charm. She ran her fingers over the walls of buildings to test the texture, would surely have run after a stray cat if he hadn’t had a good grip on her. But he managed to steer her along, keep up with the others as they passed people sitting at tables outside cafes with their little breakfast cakes and strong coffee, through a cluster of colorful homes, beyond the hotels with their awnings and umbrellas, and toward the boats and piers and docks.

“There.” Riley pointed toward a boat, much like they’d used in Corfu.

The . . . Annika had to dig for the name, but found it. The rigid-hulled inflatable.

Then Riley nodded toward a skinny man with a lot of teeth who walked toward them. The many teeth in a wide, wide smile made Annika think of a shark.

“I’ve got this.”

Riley strode forward, began an animated conversation in Italian. Annika recognized some of the words, and some of them were rude ones.

Sasha took out her sketchbook, and started to draw the world around the marina—the spread of awnings, tables, buildings, the stack of buildings climbing up to the tall, tall hills.

“He wants more money,” Doyle told them. “She’s telling him, in various ways, to stick it.”

Obviously confident in Riley winning the day, Doyle swung onto the boat.

“She said—” Annika struggled for the words. “Something about his ass and a hole.”

On a laugh, Sawyer tugged her toward the boat. “She called him an asshole. It’s an insult.”

“An asshole makes a bargain then tries not to keep it.”

“Among other asshole behavior.”

Riley came back, and the skinny man didn’t show as many teeth. “Fabio, my team. Team, Fabio. The dive club’s just down there. Fabio’s graciously agreed to give me a hand with the equipment, but we could use a couple more.”

“I’ll go with you. Come va, Fabio?”

Fabio showed Sawyer more teeth. “Bene.”

“I’ll go with them.” Bran kissed Sasha on the forehead, strolled away with Sawyer.

It didn’t take long. They wheeled back the tanks and the wet suits and the equipment the others needed to survive under the water. And a cooler full of ice and water, and even some of the fruit juices she liked, and the Cokes—she liked them, too.

While they loaded it, secured it, there was a lot of talk in Italian, but without the rude words now.

And at last—at last—they were all on board, and skinny Fabio released the ropes that held them to the dock.

Riley tapped two fingers to the brim of her hat. “Ciao, Fabio. You fuckhead,” she added in a mutter.

“A fuckhead is an asshole?”

Riley tipped down her shady glasses so her tawny eyes laughed into Annika’s. “A fuckhead is a really big asshole. My friend Anna Maria, who is neither asshole nor fuckhead, says we can moor the RIB at the dive club while we’re here. It’ll make loading and unloading easier.”

Riley walked forward to what they called a wheelhouse, where Doyle worked the controls. “I pilot today, remember?”

“Just getting us away from the fuckhead.” But he stepped aside, gave her the wheel.

Then they were skimming over the water, nearly as good as being in its heart. Doyle stepped out of the wheelhouse to go over the equipment.

“I don’t need the tank,” Annika began.

“Better if you gear up, like the rest of us.”

“We could run into other divers,” Sawyer explained. “People would notice if you’re diving without equipment.”

“So I just pretend.”

“That’s right.”

“I can do that.”

“We stick together,” Bran reminded them as Annika stripped down to her bathing suit. And as Sawyer tried not to watch her strip down. “However unlikely Nerezza’s found us this quickly, we can’t take chances. Everybody stays in sight.” He glanced toward Sasha.

“I don’t feel anything. But I appreciate everyone keeping me in sight, in case I start any underwater dream-walking.”

“I’ll look out for you,” Annika told her.

“I know you will.”

“We’ll say, as it worked before, Sawyer and Annika at point, Sasha and I behind, and Doyle and Riley at flank. All right?”

“Works for me.” Sawyer zipped up his wet suit. “First time I’ve started a dive knowing I’m swimming with a mermaid.” He grinned at Annika. “Adds to it.”

“But keep the legs, Gorgeous,” Doyle warned as Riley turned inland toward high cliffs.

“I promise. Unless there is an attack.”

“Speaking of, any luck on the bolts, bullets, and blades?” Doyle asked as he hefted a harpoon.

“Considerable, but it needs work yet. A few more days, then we’ll see. For now, should we say one harpoon to each set of buddies? With Sasha’s skills with a crossbow, I’d say she’s the one in ours.”

“Oh.”

Doyle passed her the harpoon. “Can you handle it?”

Sasha frowned at it, tested its weight. “Yes. I can do this.”

“I don’t want one,” Annika said immediately.

“It’s okay, I’ve got it.”

“Sawyer, Sasha.” Doyle looked toward the wheelhouse and Riley. “You want to argue over who mans the harpoon?”

“We’ll switch off. I pilot, you take the harpoon. You pilot, I take it.”

“Fair enough.”

Riley stopped the boat, pointed. “First cave on today’s list is at about two o’clock, and about twelve feet under to the entrance. A narrow channel opens up into a canyon after about forty feet. It’s a tricky dive for a novice.”

“I’ll be fine,” Sasha stated, pulling on her wet suit.

“You passed novice stage in Corfu.” After stripping down, Riley reached for her own wet suit. “The mouth’s small, we have to go in single file—and it’s easy to miss.”

“I can find it.” Geared up, Annika sat on the side of the boat. Then doing what she wanted most at that moment, she rolled backward into the sea.

Though the pull was to go down and down, she surfaced immediately. It was enough, for now, just to feel the sea around her. She waved to the others.

“You’ve got to give us a minute here.” On deck, Riley hauled on her tanks.

Content, Annika swam around the boat, under it, careful to keep in sight, to stay aware, but basking in the feel of home.

When she circled again, she saw Sawyer. He pointed to his camera, so she posed, turning upside down as if doing a handstand.

She felt Sasha enter the water, then Bran. Moments later, Riley and Doyle. At Bran’s signal, she flipped around, swam ahead.

But not fast, she reminded herself, pacing herself with Sawyer, tuning herself to the others as she would to a school of fish or others like her. A knowing.

Fish swam by without a thought for them. She felt the slow pulse of a starfish that slept on a rock, heard the quiet fanning of sea grasses.

She felt Sawyer’s heartbeat—not so slow as the starfish, but steady and calm. His movements, and the others, came to her like whispers.

Deeper yet, she saw the mouth, gestured, but realized the others couldn’t see it as she did. So she gestured again, continued to go down. She waited until the others were ready before sliding into the opening.

Fearless, Sawyer thought. In the water, she was fearless. And impossibly graceful. She moved through the narrow channel like the water itself, in a flow. The walls narrowed, barely wide enough for a man to pass, and the light went murky. In that narrow space, in that murky light, she turned, swimming backward. Though he couldn’t see her face, he knew she smiled, probably counted heads before she turned again, continued on.

He saw an eel curled along a crevice in the rock, and hoped it stayed where it was. He wasn’t fond of anything resembling snakes.

The walls widened, then opened into the canyon. There the light shifted, just enough. He could see, high above, openings in the cliff that let the light leak through.

They spread out, two by two, to search. More, he thought, hoping Sasha might sense something, as she had with the Fire Star. He looked for anything unusual: a formation of rock, a change in the water, a flicker of light.

He nearly panicked when he lost sight of Annika, circled fast. He pulled out his knife, started to rap the hilt against rock to draw the attention of the others. Then saw her rising up from the dark below.

She took his hands quickly, squeezed them, released them to rub hers on his cheeks.

Doyle signaled time. Annika took Sawyer’s hand again, tugged him toward the channel, then slipped into it ahead of him.

By the time he hauled himself onto the boat, she’d pulled off her mask. “Your heart beat so fast!”

“What?”

“In the canyon, at the end, it beat.” She slapped her hand rapidly on her own heart. “Why?”

“I couldn’t find you.”

“I was right under you. Just deeper, to look. I could always see you.”

“I couldn’t see you. We couldn’t see you,” he added.

“Oh.” She unhooked her tank. “I forgot. I forgot you can’t see the way I do in the water. I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” Riley pulled herself on board.

“I went deeper, and didn’t stay in sight. I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. I could see all of you, but went beyond what you can see in the water. I made Sawyer’s heart beat fast.”

Riley smiled over Annika’s shoulder as she helped Annika take off the tanks. “I bet it’s not the first time.”

“Funny. How do you know my heart beat fast when you were deeper and out of sight?”

“I can feel it. In the water, I can . . . It’s not feel like I can feel your hand,” she said, taking his. “But I can feel it.”

“Interesting.” Glancing at her, Bran threw open the cooler. “You can feel heartbeats of living things when you’re in the water?”

“Yes. Or is sense the better word? Know?”

“And you can see much farther than we can,” Bran continued.

“I forgot that. I could feel—sense?—Sasha’s heart on that day in Corfu, and know where to look. And see her. The legs weren’t fast enough, so I needed to change them.”

“But even with the legs, you can feel and see?” Riley grabbed a Coke, tossed Sasha juice.

“In the water. Are you angry?” she asked Sawyer.

“No. No, I’m not mad. You just gave me a jolt. Remember, we’re buddies down there.”

She sat beside him, tipped her head to his shoulder. “I’ll be a better buddy.”

“Good enough. How’d you do, Sasha?”

“I was fine—I can’t say I much like those tight openings, but I did fine. But I didn’t feel anything, unlike Annika.”

“Let’s cross it off.” Slicking her cap of hair back, Riley guzzled water. “And hit the next. We should be able to do three today. All of them in this general area. We’ve got others to try on the east coast, and down to the south. But we can finish up this section today.”

Sawyer figured Annika could have dived all day and half the night, but the rest of them put in a solid five hours under the water, on the boat, with a short break for a quick lunch.

They found nothing but the appeal of sea life, rock formations, and in one cave a crude carving on rock with the names Greta and Franz inside a heart with the date 15/8/05.

He liked to think Greta and Franz stayed together, maybe living in a little farmhouse along the Rhine.

He hadn’t expected to stumble across the star the first day out—didn’t think any of the team expected that kind of luck. A quest required time, effort, sweat, and risk.

And when gods were involved, blood.

But steps had to be taken, and they’d taken them for the day. Best of all, they hadn’t encountered any of Nerezza’s minions. Any day no one had to shed that blood was, in his book, a good day.

Once they’d docked the boat, turned in the tanks, he shouldered his pack. The hike home loomed, but there’d be beer at the end of it.

“Now we can go shopping.”

As one, the other five stared at her.

“There are many shops, and pretty things, and all the people. And Sawyer said we could have the outstanding.”

“A beer sounds outstanding,” Doyle commented.

“She means gelato.” Reluctantly charmed again, Sawyer shifted his pack. “She doesn’t forget anything.”

“I could go for gelato,” Riley considered.

“And I need another suit for swimming. I only have one.”

Now Riley arched her eyebrows. “What you have is a fraction of one.”

“Worn brilliantly,” Doyle put in, and made Annika smile.

“I think gelato’s an excellent plan.” With her damp hair drawn back in a tail, Sasha scanned the marina. “I bet it’s an easy find, too, and on the way.”

“Let’s find out.” Bran took her hand.

Within five minutes, after tugging Annika away from window displays of shiny objects, they met rock-hard determination.

“This shop has suits for swimming. I need this.”

“Take her in, Sawyer.”

“Oh, no.” His determination just as rock-hard, he shook his head at Riley. “That’s a girl thing. That’s absolutely a girl thing.”

“I’m going with Sawyer on that.” In solidarity Bran slapped a hand on his shoulder. “I say the females deal with this, and the rest of us head right up there.” He gestured. “We can pick up more beer.”

“I’m going with them.” Riley stepped over to the male side.

“Wait a minute,” Sasha began.

“I’m going to find what we need to make Bellinis. We definitely need Bellinis.”

“Bellinis.” Sasha sighed, looked at the shop, weighed shopping chaos against Bellinis. “All right, you’ve sold me. Annika, I’ll go in with you, but you can’t try on everything. You have to stay focused.”

“I won’t. I will. Then we’ll get outstanding gelato.” She dashed straight inside.

“They better be exceptional Bellinis,” Sasha muttered, and followed Annika inside.

She found such a pretty suit with red flowers, and another in bright, bright green, and what Sasha called a wrap almost as thin as air, and shoes with pretty seashells that left most of the foot bare. With Sasha’s help, she bought them all, and another wrap with blue waves over white for Sasha.

“For you.” She offered the little bag. “For helping me.”

“Oh, no, Anni, you don’t have to buy me something for helping you.”

“But it’s for you.” Firmly, Annika pushed the bag into Sasha’s hands. “The blue is like your eyes. It’s a gift for you, and makes me happy to give.”

“Thank you. It’s beautiful. We really have to go now. Remember, we have to carry all of this.”

“Pretty things never weigh too much.”

To Sasha’s mind, a couple of bikinis that barely covered the essentials weighed virtually nothing, but she steered Annika out of the shop.

“There they are.” Wary, Sasha kept a solid grip on Annika’s arm as they walked up to where the rest redistributed bottles into packs.

“You’re exempt,” Riley told Sasha as she hefted her heavier pack. “Fair’s fair.”

“I can carry more.” Annika turned around, offered her pack. “It’s not heavy.”

Doyle zipped a couple bottles of Italian beer inside her pack. “That’ll do it. We’ve got the rest.”

“There’s gelato!” Annika dashed up the steep street as if her new sandals had wings.

She’d struck up an animated conversation with a couple of American tourists by the time the others caught up.

“Jessica likes the chocolate, but Mark likes the pistachio. It’s a nut.”

“Right. How ya doing?” Riley signaled Sawyer to ease Annika away, distracted the couple with small talk until they wandered off.

“They were very nice, but I don’t know whether to listen to Jessica or to Mark. And oh, there are so many pretty colors.”

“Pick two,” Sawyer suggested, and her eyes went wide.

“I can have two?”

“Two scoops in a cone.”

“Two scoops in a cone,” she repeated. “Which do you pick?”

“You pick first. You’re not going to go wrong.”

“I think . . . the pink, and this green? They’ll look nice together. Like a flower.”

“Strawberry and mint. Nice combo. It’s on me,” he told the rest.

When, even after he’d paid, Annika just admired her cone, he demonstrated on his own. “You want to eat it.”

She took one delicate lick, then another. “Oh! It’s like eating joy!”

Weird, Sawyer thought as they hiked with packs, bags, and cones, but she made him feel like a hero for giving her her first taste of eating joy.

Because of it, the hike back went easy.

They scattered on the return, and as Sawyer moved faster, he snagged the shower ahead of Doyle. He washed off the salt, the sea, the sweat, felt fully human again as he drank half his first beer in the shower.

When he got out, he heard laughter from the kitchen. Female laughter. And though it appealed, he thought it wise to take a little time, a little distance from Annika.

His lust quotient there kept rising, no matter how studiously he tried to suppress it.

He took the rest of his beer outside, pulled a lounge chair into a patch of shade, and settled in with his tablet. He needed to email home, update his family. Maybe he’d read a chapter or two of one of the books he’d downloaded.

He dashed off the emails, promised pictures to follow. Told himself he could take an hour off, to read, or doze, or whatever the hell, then he’d do some research.

Riley was the queen there, but he had lines to tug as well.

Then she walked out, the mermaid in one of her floaty, filmy dresses, her hair loose, waving a little from its time in a braid. She carried a tray of flutes filled with frothy peach-colored liquid.

“Riley says it’s Bellini time.” She set the tray on the table, picked up two flutes. “She made them, and we had sips—Sasha and I.” She handed him a flute, sat on the grass with those incredible legs folded. “The gelato was eating joy, and this is drinking it.”

He sampled to please her. “Fancy. Good. Good and fancy.”

“Sasha said a monk found—discovered—champagne, and said it was drinking stars.”

“I’ve heard that.”

“Stars are meant to be for beauty and light, and for all the worlds. Nerezza won’t drink them.”

“Damn right, she won’t.” Sawyer shifted, tapped his glass to hers.

“Damn right.”

Sasha and Bran came out, chose another patch of shade with their drinks, Sasha’s sketch pad. Riley settled in the sun with a Bellini and, like Sawyer, a tablet. Doyle came last, gave the Bellinis a look of suspicion, then shrugged, took one. He, too, chose the sun.

“I like when we’re all together,” Annika murmured. “Even apart, like this a little bit, but together. I’ll miss it, miss everyone, once we return the stars to the Island of Glass.”

“We’ll have a reunion.”

“I don’t know that word.”

“It’s like when people who’ve been together, then go separate ways, come back together again to celebrate. For a night, or a couple of days.”

“A reunion.” She thought it would be a new favorite word. “You’d come?”

“Sure. I bet Bran could fix it up, somewhere private, by the sea. We’ll have gelato and Bellinis.”

“And pizza.”

“Pizza goes without saying.” He couldn’t help himself, and stroked his hand down her hair. “We’ll end Nerezza, but that won’t end us.”