Children of Poseidon: Rann Read Free

their long existence to end, they merged with the sea, became one with the foam on the waves.
    “Was she . . .?”
    “A stranger. I don’t know where she came from. Tomorrow she’ll be returned to the sea and I’ll try to find out what happened. I just wish I knew where to look.” He pushed a lock of damp black hair away from his face and glanced back at the sea.
    “If there’s anything—” Jewel broke off as Tamsin grabbed her wrist, fingers digging into the skin. “Ow.”
    “There’s a connection.” Tamsin’s eyes rolled upwards until only the whites were visible.
    Her hand was icy, and Jewel pulled herself free. “Tamsin? What . . .?”
    “Everything is tied together by death.” Her eyes rolled back, blank and unfocussed. Moving like a sleepwalker, she disappeared into the darkness of the house.
    “What on earth is she talking about?” Rann watched her go.
    “I don’t know.” Jewel rubbed the goose pimples on her arms. She didn’t like Tamsin’s death visions at all. “She’s been having dreams.”

Chapter 2
    Rann strolled down the slope of the beach to where the sand met the restless surge of the sea. Here, in the shelter of a small bay, the breakers subsided to gentle wavelets, tracing patterns in the shingle. The dead mermaid swam in the back of his mind, a problem he needed to solve. Her death ceremony had passed without incident, and two days ago her body returned to the sea that birthed her. He needed to find out how and why she died.
    Iron-gray clouds hung heavy in the sky, and humidity layered his skin with moisture. Before long, the heavens would open and the daily deluge would start. He waded out into warm shallow water, heading for the reef. Today he held the deep-water court, the one day a month he listened to the concerns of his subjects living beyond the island’s natural barrier, in the deep ocean. As far as he remembered, only one thing appeared on the agenda today, and he’d already decided how his judgement would go.
    With any luck, he should finish early and have time to spare to sniff round for anything untoward in the area, anything that might have caused the deaths the merpeople had reported.
    After the court closed, he had an appointment to meet his mother. She rarely made demands on him; time passed differently for her, and for all practical purposes, she was a hermit. He wondered what she wanted.
    The shallow water extended for almost half a mile, as far as the reef surrounding the island. Rann didn’t hurry. He splashed through the warm sea, enjoying the sight of the small brightly coloured fish, the floating blue jellyfish with their trailing toxic tentacles, and the occasional shuffling crab. Everything appeared to be calm and normal, so he let the busy life of his kingdom wash away his worry. He reached the reef as heavy drops of rain began to fall, splashing his shoulders and bouncing off the dark surface of the sea. Shaking his wet hair out of his face, he shifted into the form of a porpoise to make better speed through the water.
    The kraken waited at the entrance to a wide underwater cavern, heavy tentacles wrapped round his massive body
    “Sealord.” He acknowledged Rann’s arrival and lowered his huge dark eyes. He was still young but already too big to enter the cave easily.
    Rann transformed back into his human form and sank down, cross-legged, onto the seabed at the cave’s entrance. The light faded out at this depth, keeping the sun-deprived water still and cold, but Rann commanded his element, and he was aware of everything happening round him. Tendrils of his consciousness reached out into the deep, seeking and probing. The undersea world held no discernible trace of threat.
    He waited.
    Two merpeople, both male, emerged from the depths of the cave and glided towards him, weapons in their hands.
    “Sealord.” They bowed their heads.
    Rann nodded. The mermen had been hunting in the kraken’s territory. That must have been how they found the dead