Her voice rose the lofty heights, trilling as she went up and down the scale. Sappho and Melissa joined in, the three voices twisting around each other like elegant scrollwork. The words were simple, beseeching Sirenum to stay exactly what it was, without thought or action.

  Sirenum shook his head. “I am not humanoid. Your song will not affect me.”

  The three sirens continued to sing, though such a mundane word could not adequately describe their performance.

  Shasta stayed still. If the sirens could even lightly enchant Sirenum, that could buy them enough time for Cord to break through whatever barrier Sirenum was holding between itself and them that prevented communication.

  Sirenum went from shaking its head and vibrating the island to swaying along with the rises and falls in the sirens’ song.

  The elemental was certainly distracted, but that didn’t mean it was enchanted. Shasta let her eyes wander across the area. A small finger of lava crept along to her right. That would work. Shasta pointed her sword at it and ordered the water on the blade to roll off the blade and onto the leading edge of the flow.

  When the first drop hissed and turned into steam, Shasta watched Sirenum out of the corner of her eye. The elemental continued to sway along with the music, all its attention focused on the three sirens. It didn’t notice the sound, the cooling of the rock, or that anything was happening over here at all.

  Cord, wherever he was, was trying to work through the block from the earth side. If the sirens could keep the elemental distracted and Shasta could get enough water on it to cool it down, there was a chance she could get close enough to work on the block from the elemental itself. Not only would that be faster, but if she succeeded in directly contacting Sirenum, hopefully it would allow her to explain exactly what she and Cord were and what they were not.

  Of course, that was a lot of ands, ifs, and buts for a plan that involved touching something that was currently molten rock. However, since continuing to fight this thing wasn’t working, it was the plan she had. Dismissing her sword, Shasta carefully worked her way around the partly cooled streams of lava until she was between Sirenum and the ocean.

  The elemental seemed completely unaware of her change of position. So far, things were looking good. Though there was the small issue of pouring water over Sirenum without it realizing what was happening. Maybe if she started small.

  With the kernel of an idea in mind, Shasta retreated down the beach until she could submerge her hand in the water. It swirled around her, happy that she was uninjured. She thanked it before moving on to her question. Could you push the tide up enough to connect with some of the cooling lava?

  It rippled, as if to shrug. Perhaps. Perhaps not.

  I think I know how to end the fight, but I need to cool it down slowly.

  The water pulled away from her hand.

  Shasta kept her hand in the same spot, hoping the water would return with an idea.

  It flowed back over her hand. Need your magic.

  Shasta hesitated. Without magic, she would have a hard time protecting herself or the sirens if Sirenum reacted poorly. On the other hand, even with her magic, she hadn’t been having much luck. Shasta scrounged up every fleck of magic she could find and extended the knot of energy to the ocean. A small wave rose up, curled around the magic, and pulled it down into the water.

  What you asked shall be done.

  “You have my thanks.” Shasta swayed as she stood up. Draining herself of magic always left her feeling a little off, but this was worse. Losing all of it at once made her feel like she’d run miles in a matter of seconds.

  She forced herself to put one foot in front of the other, moving far enough away to give the water room to work. As she walked, the hazing of her vision cleared, and her movements became steadier. She was still tired, she was still without magic, but it wasn’t hitting her quite so hard now.

  A narrow wave, perhaps ten feet across at the front, flowed high up onto the beach, just caressing the edge of one of the lava flows. Sirenum twitched a little but continued to watch the sirens.

  A second wave raced up behind the first, connecting with a little bit more of the cooling rock. This time Sirenum didn’t react at all.

  Perhaps she should have been happy that this was working, but all she felt was a sense of dread. If even the slightest thing went wrong in the next part of this plan, well, it wasn’t going to be a death she’d hoped for.

  As the waves made steadily more progress, Shasta crept closer and closer to Sirenum. She stopped about eight feet behind the edge of the lava slick surrounding the elemental. The water hadn’t made it to Sirenum yet, so touching the creature was out of the question, but she could still try to communicate.

  Shasta closed her eyes, then inhaled and exhaled slowly. She slipped her hand in her pocket, fingers resting against the lump of earth. She let the remaining shields separating her mind from everything around her fall.

  She could feel the fiery strength of Sirenum, and under it the uneven notes of earth that were still a little too much volcano to be steady. She tried to push a sense of calm out from herself. Let me show you the truth of what I am. Let me show you why there is no reason for you to be afraid.

  The pillar of warmth that was Sirenum surged, growing larger and hotter. The sensation wasn’t just in her mind. Her skin felt hot, like when she stood too close to a fire as a child.

  “Lies!”

  Shasta’s eyes popped open. Sirenum was glaring at the three sirens. The earth behind them was churning, a sign Shasta recognized all too well. She reached out a hand, but she had given all her magic to the ocean. Without that power, she couldn’t form hard walls of air and shield them.

  “You want me, not them,” Shasta shouted. Even if it meant her death, she wouldn’t let the sirens take the blame for something that had been her doing.

  Sirenum wrenched its legs free, turning to face her.

  Behind her, Shasta felt the water swell up. A spout arced from the ocean above Sirenum, dumping thousands of gallons upon the elemental. Sirenum solidified again, but it was temporary. The earth resumed churning behind the sirens.

  As futile as it was on this island, Shasta sent a desperate prayer to the earth. Please don’t let this hurt me. Then she darted forward.

  The thick crust across the lava held firm as she stepped onto it. Heat still radiated out, and she knew her shoes wouldn’t last long. Two more steps and she was standing next to Sirenum.

  Waves of heat emanated off the elemental, making her feel like she was standing in the open door of a very hot oven. She didn’t even have to stretch her hand out to know the elemental was too hot to touch.

  She held her hand above his arm and projected every bit of elven communication and understanding she could at the elemental. I am not your enemy. I am not here to take your island. I am a friend, or at least a potential friend. I want to help you with the sirens. I will help you and the sirens coexist with the rest of the world. I am a creature unlike anything you’ve seen, but that does not mean I want to cause you harm.

  Sirenum’s eyes popped open, blazing red.

  One of the sirens screamed. Shasta twisted around. By the sirens a dome was growing underground. It was more than three feet tall and growing. When it burst, the lava would decimate the sirens. She flung her hand out toward the sirens, an utterly useless gesture that she couldn’t stop herself from making. “No!”

  Suddenly the barrier between her and the earth cracked. She could feel it, feel the magma gathering, preparing to explode and kill the sirens. The earth could feel her desperation. A chunk of ground between the sirens and the lava-filled earth shot up into the air, creating a wall. Just as quickly as the connection had snapped into being, it was gone again.

  “Run!” Shasta screamed at the sirens. She turned and sprinted for the water. She was too close to Sirenum. If it attacked her now, she was dead.

  Her foot caught on a rock. Shasta rolled as she went down, trying to gain a little more distance. The sharp volcanic rocks opened up long gashes across her arms. Blood dripped off her skin, hitting the earth with thick drops.

  Jaw clenched against the pain, Shasta forced herself onto her hands and knees. She didn’t look at the wounds. There was nothing she could do for that now. She sucked in one deep breath and then another. It took everything she had to get to her feet and turn to face Sirenum.

  The elemental glided toward her on lava. It had broken through the hard shell the water had helped create, and now was an ever-moving mass of molten yellow and red.

  “I will kill you. Then I will kill the other one.” Satisfaction smoothed out the rough edges of Sirenum’s voice.

  Shasta squared her shoulders. “You will not.”

  “In combat, you cannot win. You are of all the elements, and I am of one. I am of the stronger.” A wave of water crashed into Sirenum, but this time the elemental was so warm it did nothing more than create a light haze of cooled rock that quickly remelted.

  She felt Cord, and a hint of the earth connected with her elven senses. He’d made progress, but it wasn’t enough. Shasta dug the clump of dirt out of her pocket. There was one thing she hadn’t done, one thing that could win this for them.

  Shasta held her arm, still losing blood, over the lump of dirt. This wasn’t just any sample. She could feel age and time. Cord had sourced this from deep underwater, where there was still material from the early days of the volcano. A drop of her blood hit the collection of dirt and stones. “I am of the earth, and you will listen to me.”

  A second drop of blood plopped onto the dirt. The connection between her and the land opened up, and she could feel the island, from the cold depths near the ocean floor all the way up to the caldera with houses and gardens. She could feel Cord, not very far away, and the growing land area that was willing to interact with them. She could feel Sirenum, experience its fear.

  She turned over her hand, letting the dirt fall. She felt it hit the island. Suddenly Cord was there, in her mind, offering her the power she didn’t have after the long fight. She took it and forced open the connection between her and Sirenum, ignoring every attempt the elemental made to shield its own mind.

  Then she fed it images. Of her creation and learning who and what she was, of the world outside this island, and of Cord. She showed the elemental just how big and how marvelous a place the world was away from the island. And she showed it how other elementals and locals lived in harmony, from elves and woodland spirits growing vast forests to mermaids and ocean currents working in tandem.

  Sirenum backed away, dropping to one knee and bowing his head. “I did not know.”

  Shasta said nothing, but reduced the flow of information, letting Sirenum control the exchange. Questions of who and what she was flowed into her. “I am Shasta, half elf, half witch, born of the earth, created out of the dreams of the demon hunters and demon ridden, molded by thought and wish to be a hunter of evil and bringer of justice. Friend to the dragons. And I truly want to help you.”

  Sirenum looked up. “That is not your full title.”

  “I have no other title to give.” Behind the elemental, Shasta saw the sirens who remained gathering, with Cord standing ahead of all of them.

  “I may be a small thing compared to the giants like Kilimanjaro, Mauna Loa, Ichinsky, Sierra Negra, Yosemite, and Yucatán, but I know the lore my own kind passes down. To fight even the smallest of us and emerge unscathed is a feat. You are Shasta, fire forged.”

  Shasta bowed to Sirenum. “I’ll be honored to be known as Shasta, fire forged, so named by Sirenum.” As she straightened, the fatigue rolled over her. It had been battle after battle with hardly a lull in the adrenaline or danger, but she could last a little longer.

  Sirenum shrank until it was only slightly taller than Cord. Its surface went from bright yellow to a deep earthy gray. Only the joints kept their fiery lines. “I need to learn.”

  “Cord and I will be happy to teach you.” Shasta held out her hand.

  Cord broke away from the group, moving steadily around still-hot lava until he was beside Shasta. He bowed to Sirenum and then tucked his hand in hers. “It would be an honor.”

  Sirenum’s eyes dropped to their linked hands. The elemental looked at its own hands and then back at them. “I do not want to hurt you.”

  Cord reached out. “Bring your hand close to mine. I’ll tell you if it’s too warm.”

  Sirenum hesitated before doing exactly as Cord had said.

  Cord frowned and moved his hand closer to Sirenum’s. A moment later he edged closer still. Finally, there was only a sliver of air between them. Cord smiled and clasped his hand around Sirenum’s. He gently pumped their hands up and down. “This is called a handshake. It’s a very normal humanoid greeting. And the temperature of your hand is well within humanoid tolerance.”

  Sirenum nodded. “Thank you.” The elemental gently pulled away from Cord and pivoted to Shasta. “Perhaps a proper greeting?”

  Shasta grinned and clasped the warm rock that was Sirenum’s hand. “A proper introduction is always most welcome.”

  Sirenum started to smile, but then looked over Shasta’s shoulder at the gathered sirens. “I want to understand you, sirens, and the rest of the world.”

  “While I’m happy to let you live my memories, I am not the best example of life in the humanoid world. If you start with Cord, I believe the differences will be clear.” Shasta untangled her hand from the elemental’s. When Sirenum looked uncertain, she nodded and smiled. Sirenum had seen enough of her memories to know what she was, but that wouldn’t be enough. Spending time in Cord’s memories would bridge that gap of understanding.

  Sirenum and Cord clasped hands. Through her connection with the earth and Cord, Shasta felt the information begin to flow between them. She lowered herself to the ground, legs crossed, and prepared to wait. While the two of them stood hand in hand, she slowly felt every single ache and pain, both physical and emotional, that she had sustained throughout the night.

  Her father had always said there’d be some deaths that stuck with her. What regret she had wasn’t for the sirens she’d killed, but that it had become necessary for her to be involved at all. She may have been the instrument of their demise, but what brought them down were their own choices, their own beliefs, and their own crimes. It wasn’t a question of whether death was the right punishment. The question was how many people the sirens would have hurt before death found them.

  She wished that number had been zero, but it wasn’t. She couldn’t get back the lives that had been lost, but because of her, no one else would die. It was far from perfect, but it was the best she could do.

  Shasta couldn’t stop herself from watching the group of sirens. At least a third of their number was gone. Had that really purged the evil? Would they be able to rise above this tragedy? Would they be able to raise the next generation of sirens and avoid this ever happening again? Those were questions whose answers would only be found with time.

  She snorted softly. Between the wereseals and weresharks, she knew a close eye would be kept on the sirens. It would be a long time before they had the freedom to cause this type of mayhem again. And Shasta rather doubted Sirenum would be complicit in their next round of folly. The elemental seemed determined to do better.

  Cord took a deep breath and his eyes popped open. He carefully disentangled himself from Sirenum and rubbed his temples.

  With a groan, Shasta pushed herself to her feet. “Are you okay?”

  “Fine.” He stretched his neck from side to side. “I’d forgotten what it felt like to go through memories like that.”

  Shasta eyed the statue-like elemental. “The bit I shared wasn’t so bad.”

  “The more you share, and the faster, the more it sort of shoves around stuff inside your brain.” He smiled slightly. “You’ll be fine.”

  “Only one way to find out.” Shasta stepped up to the elemental, who still seemed to be reviewing what it had learned, and touched her fingers to the top of Sirenum’s hand. She closed her eyes and threw open the link.

  She was a child again, cradled in the warmth of the earth. Images flew past her. There she was outside the earth’s warmth, at her first home, days passing in a blur. The memories slowed down when she saw Cord for the first time—ears pointed, like hers. They floated through Cord helping her find Michelle and Elron and her early days at her new home.

  Things picked up again, slowing down at odd moments, like the first time she saw a Minotaur or her first interaction with a mermaid. Little by little, they went through her entire life, including everything that had happened in the Dragon Lands, culminating in this moment.

  Then she was back in her own body, blinking furiously against the morning light that was washing across the island.

  Sirenum’s voice was soft, like the quiet crunch of tires across gravel. “It is time for me to resume negotiations with the sirens.”

  Shasta cleared her throat, but Cord got the words out before she could. “We would be happy to mediate the talks.”

  Sirenum looked at the group of sirens, still bloodied, leaning against each other with fatigue heavy in every line of their bodies. “I do not think that will be necessary.”

  “The offer stands.” Cord kept his voice polite as he stepped back and bowed his head.

  Sirenum turned and lifted its feet, stepping into lava flows, and across unscarred ground on his way to the sirens. There was no aggression in the elemental’s body. Sirenum was simply walking.

  “Shasta?”

  For the first time since all this had started back in the cave, Shasta really looked at him. Purple bruises were darkening across the left side of his face. His clothing was torn and ripped, showing lacerations crossing his body. However, he didn’t seem to be badly injured. “You need a healing charm or two.”

  He shrugged one shoulder. “If our supplies are still intact, there should be enough for both of us.”

  “Sounds nice.” Shasta smiled slightly.

  “Shall we?” Cord offered his arm.