The Sheik and the Siren (Elemental Series) (16 page)

Chapter 21

Ace ran to the sea with Juturna and his men right behind him. He didn’t stop until he got to the water, and even then he kept going until he was waist high.

“Don’t leave me, Ebba. Please, sweetheart, come back to me.”

He held her in one arm and splashed water over her with the other, but still she didn’t move. Juturna stood at the shore watching eagerly, trying to see in the darkness, and his men hurried up behind her.

“Lord Ace!” Boots waded out into the water after him, followed by Sir John and several of the other men.

“Ho
w is she?” asked Sir John, “Would she live?”

“She still isn’t moving, I don’t know,” he said. Then he reached down with one hand and undid his weapon belt
, handing it and his sword to Boots. “Hold on to this, I’m taking her all the way under.”

Then he laid her in the water and with one arm he swam, taking a deep breath and pulling her under with him. It was night and dark under the water and he couldn’t see if it was working until he surfaced and could see her face in the light of the moon.

“’Tis not working,” he shouted, aggravated and scared that he was going to lose her forever. “I’m going under again,” he called out and took a deep breath, and this time stayed down as long as he could. But when he saw she still wasn’t moving, he realized that even a sea of water was not going to bring his beloved Ebba back to life.

He didn’t want to go on living without her, he realized. He’d never been so happy in all his life since he found her. This land of the sand and sheiks was hell as far as he was concerned. He no longer wanted to be a part of it, and if she
was gone, then he would go to the other side to be with her.

With the last of his breath he brought his lips to hers
, and in one last kiss he gave her breath the way she had done to him in the coral cave. He relaxed as his life slipped away, as he knew now he’d be with her as well as his unborn child and his mother. And in the last second of life, the moonbeams shone through the water and he saw her eyelids flicker. She smiled slightly and brought her lips to his in a dying kiss.

Ebba opened her eyes to see Ace under the water with her. He was kissing her and giving her his breath – his last dying breath she now realized as she saw his eyes close and his body go limp before her.

She reached up and brought her lips to his and blew back into him the air that he needed to survive. Then she reached around his arms and pulled him to the s
urface. When his head broke through to the air, she clutched him to her chest and kissed him so hard and furiously that air could not escape him this time.

He coughed up water and gasped for breath and when he realized she was looking at him he shouted out and pulled her into his arms.

“She’s alive,” he cried out to tell his friends on the shore, and they shouted back and cheered and some of them ran in to the water to join them.

He kissed her again and held her so tightly they began to sink back under the water. They came up splashing and laughing and he took her into his arms and carried her until they were waist high in the water now. “Don’t ever leave me, Ebba. I love you, and I love the fact we are having a baby.”

“And I love you, too,” she said. “Thank you Ace, for saving my life.”

“Excuse me,” came a low voice and Ebba turned to see Kamil standing waist deep in the water as well. And in his arms he held the dead body of her mother. “I tried to bring her back
to life in the water, but the healer said it was too late. The wound pierced her heart, and she is dead.”

“Nay, Mother!” Ebba slipped
out of Ace’s embrace and ran to her. Her heart ached to be with her mother once again. She threw her arms around the dead woman, sobbing and laying her head on her mother’s chest.

“Ebba, you have to let her go now,” said Ace pulling her away. She turned and hid her face in his chest. “Ebba, what do you want us to do with your mother?”

“I want to bring her home,” she said.

“Done,” he answered and then looked up to Kamil.

“My lord, I request to leave this land with you when you go,” said Kamil. “There is naught here for me but bad memories. Doria-Nerita was always kind to me and she gave her life to save mine. I would like to be there when she is laid to rest. And I owe you a great debt for saving my life. I would like to be your servant now.”

“You may come with and serve me, but you owe me no debt. You are
free to leave my service at any time.”

“Then may I bring my wife and children with, my lord? They resides not far from here and I have not seen them in years.”

“Of course,” he said with a nod. “I would like that.”

“Ace,” said Ebba. “What exactly happened
back at the tent?”

“All that matters is
that the sheik is dead and would never harm you, me, or any of our loved ones ever again.”

“Asad? Son,” came a voice from the shore.
“We need to talk.”

Ace looked up to Malik – his father – standing on the shore. So the man he thought was his uncle all these years was really his father. Ace wanted more than anything at one time to know who begot him. But now that he knew, he wished he hadn’t.

“I have nothing to say to you,” he said, taking Ebba by the hand and leading her out of the water.

“Asad, let me explain.” Malik put his hand on Ace’s shoulder but he brushed it off.

“You knew for more than two decades that you were my father yet you couldn’t tell me?”

“There is a good reason for that,” he answered.

Ace walked away, still holding on to Ebba’s hand. “Boots, Sir John, what is our death count,” he asked
, taking his sword from Boots and strapping it back around his waist.

“Not too
bad,” said Boots. “But we did lose four men.”

“How many wounded?” he asked, ignoring his father now standing at his side.

“Nearly half the rest are wounded in some way,” stated Sir John, “but I assure you it is naught compared to what we’ve already been through.”

“Juturna, see to the wounded,”
he called out. “And men, we would spend the night on the ship and leave at first light as soon as Kamil returns with his family.”

“You can stay in the palace,
Son. As well as the rest of you,” Malik offered, but that was the last place Ace wanted to be right now.

“We would
stay on the ship,” he repeated, grabbing Ebba’s hand and starting up the plank to board the Paradigm.”

“Asad,” his father called o
ut and he stopped in his tracks, and turned around.

“Asad died years ago,” Ace
said looking directly at him. “And from now on, you would call me Ace.”

Chapter 22

Ace woke the next morning in the bed of his cabin having spent the night with Ebba in his arms. He knew she wouldn’t still be there this morning, as her body needed to be replenished and he was sure she was out swimming in the sea.

He was glad it was all over, but he couldn’t wait to get back out to sea and away from this land that he hated more than anything right now.

He stumbled out of bed and pulled on his clothes and donned his belt and weapons. He was running his fingers through his tangled hair when the door to the cabin burst opened and Ebba rushed in.

“What a sight for sore eyes,” he told her, reaching out and pulling her toward him. She’d changed out of her harem outfit and into a gown
. He chuckled inwardly when he saw that she cut off the sleeves and also cut it off just above her knees as well. That was his little siren, all right. He couldn’t help but think how seductive she’d looked in the harem girl’s outfit yesterday. He’d have to bring one back for use in the bedroom at a later date.

“Ace, come up on the deck, I have a surprise for you.”

“What about we just go back to bed,” he said with a raised brow. He hadn’t made love to her last night because he knew she was too weak and needed to save her strength for the baby.

“There would
be plenty of time for that later,” she said with a giggle and kissed him on the mouth. He pulled her closer, liking the way their bodies felt pressed together.

“Would
you marry me Ebba-Tyne and be my wife and the mother to my baby?”

“Of course, I would
,” she said. “I love you and would be with no one else.”

“I am so sorry about your mother,” he told her. “I wish there was something I could do.”

“Well, there is naught you could do about my mother, but there is something else you could do for me.”

“Anything, sweetheart,” he said nuzzling her neck with kisses.

“Do you really mean that?” she asked.

“Of course I do. I would go to the ends of the earth for you and slay dragons and even sharks if need be.”

“Ace, the sharks are my friends,” she reminded him. “And I have no need for you to slay a dragon, but since you just made me a promise, I want you to talk to your father before we leave Tamaris.”

“Nay! You tricked me,” he said, releasing her and pulling on his shoes.

“Just talk to him, please. It would mean so much to me.”

He looked at her and thought how lucky he was to have her. He didn’t want to go back on his promise but neither did he want to talk to the man who did naught about saving his mother.
“If I happen to see him, I would,” he said, trying to brush off the whole idea, knowing he wasn’t going to shore today so there’d be no chance of that happening. “Now let’s get up on deck and prepare to sail.”

“Fine,” she said. “But first, Cook has prepared a meal to break the fast and everyone is up on deck already eating.”

“Whom do you mean by everyone?” he asked, making his way to the door.

“Oh, you know – Kamil and his family, who are very nice by the way. And Juturna and the men and – everyone.”

He stopped in his tracks and turned around, suddenly knowing exactly who ‘everyone’ was. “My father had better not be up there or I am not going to be a happy man.”

“Just give him a chance to talk,” she begged him.

“Damn it, Ebba, why did you have to go and get involved?”

“Because I care about you, that’s why. And I love you too much to let you go through life hating someone who doesn’t deserve it.”

“He deserves it,” he told her, heading up the stairs. “Let’s get this over with already so I can get the hell away from here.”

Ace hurried up to th
e deck planning on a fast hello and goodbye with his father – the new sheik of Tamaris, and then he’d kick him off the ship and set sail for home. He stopped suddenly when he opened the door and walked out, as his ship had never had so many people aboard it at one time as this.

“Ebba, who the hell are all these people?”

She snaked her arms around him in a hug. “Your family,” she said.

“What the hell! I don’t have a family and neither do I have time for this.”

“Captain,” called out Boots. “Cook has made some of your native food – lots of spice. He followed the sheik’s instructions and it tastes pretty damned good!”

“Come join the fun,” called out Sir John, dancing to flute music with a harem girl who was shaking her goods so hard Ace thought she was going to lose her outfit.

“I want these people off my ship anon,” Ace growled but everyone was having such a good time that they either didn’t hear him or just ignored him.

“Lord Asad,” I’d like to introduce you to my family,” said Kamil, bowing slightly and presenting his wife and two girls about ten and twelve years of age.

“It’s Lord Ace now,” he corrected him, and nice to meet you,” he said forcing a smile.

“Thank you,” said one of his girls. “We grew up without our father and are so happy to have him back in our lives.”

“Of course,” he said with a nod. Then looking up to the forecastle of the ship he saw his father. He knew he couldn’t ignore it any longer, and took the steps two at a time, trying to approach this issue quickly.

“Asad, good morning. I’m glad your woman invited us here today,” he said in the Tamarian language.

“Do me and the others aboard my ship the courtesy of speaking in a language they can understand while you are here, please.”

“You have every right to be angry with me,” said Malik, “but at least hear what I have to say.”

“I’m listening, so talk.”

Ace knew everyone around him could hear and understand their conversation now, and he could see it made his father uncomfortable. Still, he continued.

“As you know, Talib was my brother and also the eldest of us, hence he was named the Sheik of Tamaris.”

Ace didn’t answer, just looked out over the sea and listened.

“Well, he had his harem as is traditional for our people, and I had nothing but the title of second son. I fell in love with one of my brother’s harem girls – your mother. But I could not tell him or she would have been punished or killed for what we’d done. Then you were born, and we both knew you were our child as she hadn’t been with the sheik in a while since she was no longer a favorite of Talib’s and hadn’t bore him a baby.”

“Why did you keep it a secret instead of just telling your brother? You could have protected us. You were still powerful.”

“I planned on doing that, but Hala begged me not to. She said she wanted you to one day be sheik and be wealthy and powerful. It was something neither of us could give you.”

“That’s a lie. You could have made that happen even if I would never be sheik.”

“True, I could have. But by law, any woman of the sheik’s that betrays him is executed. I said naught in order to save her life. But then she decided she couldn’t live in secret anymore and one day told another of the harem girls, it got back to the sheik. Only, to protect me, she said not that I was your father. She planned on sending you away on a ship with a trader from overseas. She hoped you’d be gone before the sheik ever found out but that wasn’t the case.”

“But she died anyway, and you did nothing to save her.”

“That’s where you are wrong – partially. I was not here when it happened as I was securing a stronghold overseas that I was going to take both of you to so we could start a new life together.”

“You waited seven and tens years to do it,” he spat. “And you let me be raised around the harem and trained in the ways of the sheik, knowing someday I would be just like him.
”

“I am sorry for the mistakes I’ve made Son, but I want to make them up to you. Stay with me, as someday when I am gone you would be sheik of Tamaris.”

“How can that be?” he asked. “I know Talib had many children and I remember some of them were also boys.”

“True, but only a
small amount were boys and all three of them have perished. Since you are my first born son, you are successor to the throne after me.”

“I don’t care, and I don’t want it. I am Ace now, and I have a new life waiting for me back across the seas.”

“Ace?” Ebba came up behind him. “These people aboard our ship are your family. You can’t just ignore that part of your life as if it never existed.”

“It didn’t exist,” he told her. “I never knew about it, so it was dead to me.”

“But you know now,” she said. “And you can make up for the years you lost. Get to know these people.”

“But they are not born from my mother, so they are not my true siblings.
So I have no family,” he told her.

“Not true,” said Malik, waving a young woman over to him who looked to be a few years older than Ace. She held a
baby in her arms. “This is Durra, and she is your sister. You see, before you were born, your mother and I had another child. Hala was pregnant when my brother took her into his harem, but we said nothing because it would have ended badly for her and the baby. The sheik was overseas when the baby was born and we told him it died, and instead gave the baby to a peasant family to raise as their own. Your sister is married today and has her own baby.”

“Asad, I am hap
py to finally meet you, brother, as I have also just found out about my true parents. And this is my daughter, Sabiha. My husband was one of the sheik’s guards and died yesterday in the battle.”

Suddenly Ace saw things in a different light. “So,
you didn’t know who your parents was either?” he asked.

“I thought I knew
my parents,” she told him, “but this morning when the sheik told me the truth, I found out differently. “But I am happy to finally have found my true family, and also to have found you, brother.”

“I
am sorry about your husband,” Ace said, wondering if he was possibly the one who’d killed him.

“I
wish you’d decide to stay,” Durra told him. “It would be nice to know my brother.”

“Aye, I would like to know you, too,” he admitted.
“But I am sorry, I cannot stay.”

“At least invite your father and sister to our wedding,” said Ebba from behind him.

“Well . . . I don’t know,” he said, not sure what to do.

“We would
take it small steps at a time, son,” said his father. “And if you would have us at your wedding, we would be honored.”

Ace felt choked up, wondering if his hatred for the sheik had been misplaced. Possibly he could learn in time to accept his father –
and get to know his sister and her baby as well.

“I would like that,” he said softly, and reached over and pulled Ebba into his arms. “And I only wish Ebba’s family could have been
here to join us at the wedding as well.”

“My family will be there in spirit,” she said with a smile. “And you know where t
o find my fae friends, so I would have family with me after all.

“I love you, Ebba-Tyne,” said Ace pulling her to him for a kiss. “Don’t ever forget that.”