by Chanda Hahn
I took a deep breath, pulled off my knit hat, and shook out my long red hair as it tumbled free.
Howland made a noise of surprise and pulled away from me in fright.
I stood tall and looked him dead in the eye. “As you can see, I’m no man.”
“That ye aren’t, lass. I can’t believe I be so blind.” I gave him a wry smile. He reached forward and gave me a hug. “But I still can’t let ye go. How are ye going to battle a witch?”
I turned to the water, raised my hands, and sang. The sky darkened, and the waves rose in answer to my song, pounding the side of the ship. When I stopped singing, the water settled down.
“How’s that in answer to your question?”
“I can’t believe it.” Howland burst into an enormous grin. “I think yer right. The only thing that can beat a sea witch be another sea witch.”
With Howland’s help, we lowered the smaller skiff into the water. I told him to stay aboard, but he refused to leave or let me go by myself.
“No, miss. I don’t dare. Ye may be the captain's only hope, and it wouldn’t be right of me to let ye go without an escort.” He reached for the two oars, and I could see him struggling.
“It’s not miss. It’s Merisol. Or as my sisters call me, Meri.”
“Merisol,” he repeated. “That’s nice. Better than Merrill. Has a regal sound to it.”
“Let me,” I answered, and began to sing. The water pushed against the skiff, and we sailed easily through the waters.
“Praise the stars!” he crowed and grabbed the oars so they wouldn’t slip out of the rings and into the ocean.
I wasn’t sure how I felt about being called a sea witch. My gifts had always leaned toward the two elements of water and air, which were two compatible gifts. I didn’t believe I was anything like the watery creature who could dissolve into a puddle at will.
I closed my eyes and opened myself up to the magic of the water. It was soothing to my soul. The largest body of water I ever controlled was the lake near our home. I could see the allure of living near the sea and being able to control the ocean. It was heady, it was powerful, and I felt invincible.
We were approaching the beach, and the waves weren’t slowing our approach.
“Careful!” Howland warned. The wave we were riding crested, and we lifted into the air.
I stopped singing a while ago, and it was the echo of magic that was pushing us into the white sands.
“Hold on!” I cried in warning.
The wave crashed into the shore, and we surfed along the sands until the nose of the skiff was slowed by earth. Even though I was prepared for the landing, I still went flying and banged my knee on the forward bench. Poor Howland lost his hold on the oars, and one was floating away in the water.
Quickly, I hopped out and trudged back into the surf to retrieve the oar. The water soaked my pants, and I shivered as the cold bit into my skin. I flung the oar over my shoulder and walked back to the boat. Now that I was here on the island, I was rethinking my plan. Maybe I wasn’t the best choice to save a bunch of men.
Howland secured the boat to a palm tree and made his way over to the abandoned longboat. He walked around the boat, studying the sands, and then he frowned.
“What’s the matter?” I asked.
He wiped his brow, and I could see his nervousness. “From the looks of the undisturbed sand around the boat, none of the men have returned to the beach. That was two days ago.”
“They’ve been taken prisoner,” I said. “By the sea witch.”
Howland’s hand went to his heart, and I saw him falter.
“It’s okay,” I tried to reassure him. “You don’t have to go with me. You can stay on the beach. Maybe some of the men will come back.”
Howland nodded. “I feel like such a failure not comin’ with ye.”
“You’ve got me this far. I will do the rest.” I took my hat out of my pocket and tucked my hair back inside. Before I left him on the beach, I reached out to give him a hug.
“Y-ye better come back now.” He patted my shoulder, and I heard the emotion clinging to his voice.
“I will.”
I slung my pack of supplies over my shoulder and turned to face the enormous island alone. It was a daunting task, one that I wasn’t even sure I was prepared for. How did one search for a sea witch on an island? Did I announce my presence with a hello?
I skimmed the abundant vegetation, saw a freshly cut path, and knew that was probably where the crew cut their way inward. I guessed the fastest way to find the witch was to follow the trail the men forged.
When I was out of sight of Howland, I looked around in despair as the darkness of the island swallowed up the little moonlight that made it to the island floor. At first, it was easy to see the boot prints left behind by twenty men, but then the path dwindled. I pulled out a torch from the pack of supplies, and instead of using flint and steel, I breathed out one word. “Fiergo.”
The torch flickered as it tried to light and then fizzled out. I frowned. If Mother had seen, she would’ve been quite displeased with the attempt.
Water is the antithesis of fire, and I always struggled with fire spells. Giving up, I reached for the flint and quickly brought forth a bright flame the old-fashioned way. I grinned in triumph. Swinging the torch above my head in an arc, I searched the ground for tracks. Nothing. There wasn’t a single heel print, bent bush, or foliage out of place. It was as if they disappeared.
I bit my lip in thought. I dropped my sack and carefully reached under my newly stolen shirt. Thorn destroyed my other one, and after Howland helped rebandage my back, I slipped on one I had taken from Brennon’s room over my body.
It wasn’t the easiest angle, but I could pull a piece of the seaweed bandage still wrapped around my back. My back healed, skin perfect and smooth. It had come from her dress, and I could easily do a reverse tracking spell on it. If the bounty hunters used my stuff to track me, I should’ve been able to use this to track down the witch’s lair. If I had an object of power, like a quartz crystal, I could’ve amplified its abilities and used it like the bounty hunters. But I didn’t.
The piece of seaweed had already dried out. It was now brittle and falling apart. I doubted it would hold together long enough for a simple spell, but I prayed this would work.
I tossed it into the air, giving it the command to “Seek.”
The dark seaweed fluttered once, twice, and almost dropped among the foliage when it took off in the darkness.
I followed, my torch held high. Twice, I almost lost it to the shadows of the night, but it led me deeper into the island and then dropped into a hidden oasis of water. As soon as it touched the water, it broke apart and dissolved. The tracking spell had gotten me this far. Now, the rest was up to me.
The pool was black and still. None of the surrounding palms were shown in its reflective surface. Only the moon itself shone brightly, not giving away any of the secrets that were held within. But I knew the power of moonlight and reflections, for I had been taught well.
Even in the midst of night, there should’ve been sounds of life, birds, the wind rushing through the trees, even the ocean. But here by the inner island, there was a void of sound. Nothing existed.
I kneeled next to the water, took a pebble, and tossed it into its depths.
The stone sank. No ripple marked its passing.
“Interesting.”
It was a well-designed trap.
I walked the length of the pool, looking for each of the hidden sigils I knew would be there. There was a moon, mirror, trap, and another I couldn’t quite understand.
After I thoroughly inspected the magical pool, I sang—softly, waiting for the water to answer me. At first, it resisted, because it had already been given an assignment and wanted to fulfill its duty. But water was fluid and could be easily influenced. I sang notes of freedom, strength, reality, and finally door.
The water receded bit by bit to reveal a set of stone steps
that led down into the earth. How far down, I didn’t know.
I grabbed my bag and torch and took the steps one at a time, being very careful to hold my command over the water. The steps leveled off, and an impressive underground room appeared. One foot in front of the other, I continued until my boot crushed what I thought was a shell. I lifted my foot and looked down in horror at the human skull I trampled. I spun, and the torch illuminated the cavern floor covered with hundreds of skeletons.
I held back a gasp, covering my cry with my hand, my heart aching for the remains that would never return home. I prayed they weren’t the remains of Brennon and the others. Warmth filled my mouth. I had bitten my cheek in anger. I let that anger fill me, the rage at the senseless deaths fueling me, and my fear dissipated.
This couldn’t continue. I couldn’t allow the sea witch to murder anymore.
“Obliviate.”
The skulls became white dust, and I marched forward down the tunnel with a renewed sense of purpose. My mother trained us to be powerful, but my guilty conscience weakened my confidence in using magic. Fueled by anger, I had only one desire.
To not have my skull added to the ones on the floor.
Chapter Twelve
The creepy tunnel went on forever. I’d been walking for two candle marks and had yet to find another passage or turn. Maybe I’d been mistaken in my quest? Maybe I failed at the seeker spell? For surely I would have encountered something by now?
The path ascended, and the ceiling rose higher. My boots echoed loudly off the cavern walls. The air took on a salty yet acrid scent. One I associated with black magic. I stepped into a wide-open cave with an underground pool. Torches blazed and reflected the watery surface onto the walls.
A chair made of stone covered in strands of pearls sat on a naturally formed rock dais overlooking the deep pool. The waters inside lit up with colorful algae. Sitting on the edge with her feet dangling in the water was the sea witch, Sirena. In her lap sat a wooden bucket full of mussels. She was tossing them into the water.
I strayed closer and glanced into the pool, and I held back my gasp of surprise. For at the bottom of the pool, their feet chained to heavy weights, was the crew of the Bella Donna. Instantly, I recognized Brennon’s light hair and the darker-hued shade of Vasili’s deep inside the watery prison.
“Are they dead?” I asked.
Sirena was watching me out of the corner of her eye. She plucked a mussel from her bucket and, using a knife, slipped it between the shell and easily pried it open. She offered me the raw mussel. I shook my head. The sea witch shrugged her shoulders and tipped back her head, eating the contents and slurping the shell clean.
“They’re under a spell and are safe.” She tossed the broken shell behind her. “For now.”
“Let them go!” I demanded.
“Let them go?” She scoffed. “They trespassed on my island. They left me no choice but to imprison them. Especially since one of them brought that horrid ring into my home.”
Vasili’s ring must have upset her and may have even had the opposite effect of helping.
“What does that ring do?” I asked.
“It’s a painful reminder of a past long forgotten,” she answered. “You’re welcome.” She gestured with her knife. “If I hadn’t given you the bandage, you probably wouldn’t have found me.”
“Thank you.” I scoffed. “But why did you take the crew when they came here for answers?”
She waved her hand in the air dismissively. “I lied. Because my daughters were hungry. I’ve kept them at bay... for now.”
“Daughters?”
The sea witch placed a mussel on the edge of the pool and knocked it into the water. The shell bobbled and floated to the bottom near Vasili. A blue-and-green blur swooped out from under a hidden shelf and gobbled it up before turning its attention on us at the surface.
I sat awestruck as a mermaid with blue hair and a shimmering green tail swam upward. Her head broke the surface, and her piercing black slitted eyes watched me warily. The witch stepped away from the pool and placed the second mussel in front of me.
A deep wailing cry came from within the water, and then the mermaid propelled herself out to sit on the edge. She tried to reach for the mussel, but it was just out of reach. Frustrated, she turned and let out an inhuman cry at her mother.
“I told you, Grotta, if you want it, you need to use your legs.”
Grotta made a grunt, her mouth unable to form words out of the water.
The mermaid turned those silky eyes my ways and blinked, her arms pleading with me to give her what she wanted. I picked up the shell and was about to hand it to her, but her beauty distracted me.
Apparently, I didn’t move fast enough, because Grotta let out a high-pitched scream, and I covered my ears in pain. In a blinding flash of magic and light, her tail was gone and in its stead a pair of human legs as she propelled herself out of the pool.
Grotta was on me, her hands clawing at my face, her pointed teeth snapping at me and almost taking a finger off as she snagged the shell from me. She turned, raced back to the water, and dove in, her legs transforming back into a tail. It splashed the water with a thump.
The mermaids were very dangerous creatures, and now that I knew what I was looking for, I could see the witch’s other daughters swimming in and out beneath the hidden alcoves. Bright, silky manes flowed behind them.
“How many daughters do you have?” I asked the sea witch.
“Seven. One to rule every sea.” She grinned and tossed a few more mussels into the pool. Her smile faded as she watched her daughters bicker and fight amongst themselves like dogs over the scraps she was throwing them. Another silky head popped out of the water, and this time a woman with hair the color of wine and stormy gray eyes cooed at me. “But my poor daughters are cursed. If they take human shape, every step they take is like walking on knife blades, and they cannot speak out of water.”
“Who cursed them?”
Sirena’s eyes glittered dangerously, and she stroked the silky hair on her daughter’s head. “A very bitter woman. I took something precious from her, and in return she took something precious from me.”
“My mother,” I whispered in realization. “In retaliation for what you did to her father. She cursed your daughters.”
Sirena’s fingers dug into her daughter’s hair, and the girl squealed and tried to dive beneath the water to safety.
Sirena’s face turned moody. Her white hair moved on its own. The waters in the pool rippled as she directed her anger at me. She had not meant to reveal that tidbit to me.
“Yes, and lo and behold, the captain brought you right to my very island. So now, I have something you want. And you have something I want.” Her pointed teeth seemed to gleam at me. She held out her hand expectantly.
“I-I don’t have anything.”
Sirena blinked at me. “Then they die.” She waved her finger in the air, and I saw the seven daughters begin to circle the crewmen. Grotta drew close to Brennon, and her webbed fingers traced down his chest hungrily. She brought her sharp teeth close to his lips.
“No. Stop!” I cried out. “What could you possibly want in return for all their lives?”
“I think it’s obvious,” she hissed. “I want the curse lifted from my daughters.”
“I can’t. I don’t know how,” I said dejectedly. And it was the truth. I didn’t know how to lift a curse placed on them by my mother. There were secrets that even she never shared.
“I do,” Sirena said sweetly. Barefoot, she tiptoed across the cavern to me, the trail of water lingering behind her. It was as if she was made of water, and a trail was always flowing from her and her daughters. “All you have to do is make a deal with me. One little, itty-bitty deal. A contract that is binding. It will free my daughters and give you what you want.”
“How could you possibly know what I want—” I raised my voice. “—when I don’t even know what I want?”
“It’s wha
t everyone wants.” Sirena brushed her icy fingers across my shoulders then trailed a finger across my cheek and under my chin. Slowly, lifting my face to meet hers, her bottom lip tucked under her front teeth as she whispered, “Freedom.”
“Freedom?”
“I know what you did, Merisol. I, too, know how to scry the kingdoms. You who thought yourself so high and mighty used your powers and murdered a man. Now, you can never return home or see your sisters ever again because of the bounty placed on your head.”
My eyes dropped to the floor with guilt. Sirena gripped my chin and made me look into her milky eyes.
“I can make all of it go away.”
“How?” I asked.
“I’ll take away your magic.”
“What?” I snapped and swatted at her hand. “That’s impossible.”
“No, you see. If your magic is gone, then the bounty hunters can’t track you. It means you’ll never be able to use magic again, but then you can live your life. Free of all constraints.”
“It doesn’t undo what I did.”
“No, but that is the price you pay. Plus, you will save them.” Sirena waved her hand at the floating bodies below.
I shook my head. How long would Sirena’s spell last? Would they awaken chained to the floor underwater? Would they drown if I didn’t free them? A feeling of dread overcame me. “There must be some other way. I can’t give up my magic.”
“I wouldn’t waste time if I were you. My daughters are getting hungry.” She pointed into the pool, and I could see seven girls swimming closer and closer to the men, a few even taking playful snaps at their fingers. If I didn’t agree to her demands….
My heart beat wildly in my chest, and I knew my mother would never agree to what I was about to do. She would have found some way around it. Or used her magic to destroy the sea witch, but as Aura constantly reminded me, we were not our mother, despite how she wanted to raise us. We created our own merit and that drove us. We may have been raised to be bringers of evil, but I had already done that and didn’t like the repercussions.