World of Aluvia 2

by Amy Bearce

  “Liam?” she called out. Her voice quavered, and she tried again. “Liam, are you down there?” Please don’t be down there. Please don’t be down there.

  A high, piteous scream shattered the silence: the shriek of a terrified child. The magic in her vibrated in response.

  Phoebe swallowed her fear and dove. She had to get to him. Liam was a seawee, and he needed her. With her light doused for safety, the darkness closed around her like a fist. She swam past where she had reached before, her terror a cold ache in the pit of her stomach.

  Things brushed against her arms, unseen things that left rasping scratches behind on her skin. Fish shone like translucent ghosts, their beating hearts and stomachs like ink spots inside their clear skin. Almost all of them had sharp teeth. She held her arms closely to her side, hoping they wouldn’t attack.

  A ripple of pain scored her back. She bit back a cry and flailed away. Dangling ribbons of a pale pink jellyfish floated beside her, ready to tangle prey in lengths even longer than her body. She took several calming breaths and proceeded even more cautiously than before. The water was hotter here, even against her mermaid flesh, and she remembered the boiling water vents Tristan had mentioned.

  Finally, the roof of the temple loomed before her, cracked clamshell tiles coated with dark red plants and moss. Unlike the temple in the ancient city, this one was closed all around except for a single entrance. Phoebe floated, paralyzed with fear as she stared at the opening. Go in. Go in. Just do it. But she couldn’t.

  Then a shock zinged through her like a lightning bolt. She arched her back, biting back a cry. The child she had sensed was gone. It was like a candle blown out in her mind, leaving just a smoking wick. Was she too late? Grief pulled her apart, ripping through her gut, stealing her breath. She’d been too afraid. She’d caused the death of an innocent child because of her brokenness. Phoebe’s mermaid body didn’t know how to handle the overload of pain that burned inside her, unable to be released. The merfolk were not built for such tragedy.

  Trembling in the dark, Phoebe knew she had to check to see what happened to the little seawee. If nothing else, she would take his body home. It was the least she could do.

  She’d never dreaded anything so much in her life, but she swam forward, trembling fingers reaching out toward the open stone door of the temple. She couldn’t enter such darkness, not here. She needed light.

  Then a hiss slid through the water.

  Phoebe spun around, and two water wraiths converged on her at once. She screamed as they grabbed her arms. Their hands were like ice as they pulled her into the gloom of the temple. Thrashing, she kicked with her fin as hard as she could, trying to escape.

  Blue light flashed, but it now slid along them and disappeared without a trace, as if they were funneling her energy through themselves into something else. One even smiled at her, a long slow smile that promised a great deal of pain. They dragged her deeper.

  “Stop!” Phoebe glowed brilliantly, but the wraiths continued forward. Her biceps felt like they would snap in half from the pressure of their grip. Her blue light dimmed and went out completely.

  The water wraiths growled, their glowing red eyes turning the walls the color of blood.

  “I command you to let me go!” Phoebe said, shaking. She tried to summon her blue light again, but her emotions were out of control, and with them, so, too, was her magic.

  A low booming laugh filled the temple.

  o, little girl, you think you can command my servants to do anything? Not now, with my consciousness awakened.” The voice was gravelly, the grind of a dungeon door swinging closed.

  The hairs on Phoebe’s neck rose. “Who are you?”

  More red light flared. With her new vision, Phoebe could easily make out the laughing figure. It took a long moment for her brain to make sense of what she saw.

  A young seawee glided toward her with a smirk on his face.

  “Liam?” Phoebe shook her head and blinked her eyes hard, but her vision didn’t change. It was the boy who had told the elders about the water wraiths, the boy who had been full of terror and utter belief that evil had returned. He wasn’t dead after all. But she had sensed him disappear. Liam’s presence remained shadowed even now, like a banked fire. Yet there he was, grinning at her.

  Grinning? “Liam, what are you doing here?”

  “Liam? What are you doing here?” mocked the seawee in a hideous parody. The deep voice didn’t belong there. This voice was ancient, laced with hatred. He eyed her with derision, lips quirked in a cruel smile.

  “I see you aren’t wearing my necklace anymore. Did those mean merfolk take it away from you? Too bad for them it was too late. Good for me, though. Yes, definitely good for me.”

  “And, uh, why is that good?” Phoebe asked, desperately trying to grasp what was happening.

  “I need a rich meal to embody my true form again. You are by far the most powerful creature in the sea. Aside, that is, from me.” Liam tapped his chest with his finger and giggled.

  The little child’s sound was like an off-key note. The evil eyes, the red glow, the menacing words… all delivered from a sweet child’s body.

  Phoebe shuddered. “And what did you do with Liam?”

  Again, the booming laugh. “Very good, little mermaid. For mermaid you are, indeed. Oh, Liam’s in here, too, crying in the back of my mind. Because it’s mine now. He’s a whiner, just like his feeble drunk of a father. Like father, like son. That was his father’s mer-tear I gifted you with, you know. He gave it up in an attempt to bargain with me, to spare his life when my wraiths came for him. Didn’t want to die, though of course, he did when we squeezed every last drop of magic out of him. But even his tear didn’t have enough power for what I needed.”

  At a nod from the boy, the wraiths released her. Phoebe eased backward, trying to make space between them without being too obvious. “So that’s why the wraith tried to take my magic?”

  “Tried and failed, unfortunately.”

  “Why not take my energy yourself if you’re so powerful?”

  “I’ve been trapped in a dream for quite some time, leaving me weak. Fortunately, my consciousness escaped it. Freeing my mind from my dream prison required several sacrifices.”

  “Like Liam’s father? And the merman I found on the coast?”

  “My water wraith servants killed them and sent their magic to me, yes. We are deeply connected, my servants and I. Yet I could barely whisper in my servants’ minds to wake them enough to seek sustenance for me.” He scowled.

  Phoebe gulped. Maybe if she kept the monster talking―for monster he assuredly was, no matter what body he wore―she could figure out an escape plan. “So, what did you do once you had… replenished your energy enough?”

  “You really must keep up. I took over this boy’s body, since he had the poor judgment to come looking for proof of my wraiths. He made it so easy. A physical body makes any feeding more solid. I planned to use him to funnel a great deal of magic into my physical form here, but it turns out something is wrong with this body. With all of these merfolk. Somehow, none of them can use magic properly anymore.” The seawee swam closer, back and forth, back and forth, and Phoebe retreated farther.

  “They are magic,” Phoebe said, automatically. Everyone knew that.

  “Wrong. They have magic in them, yes, but they can’t channel it like they used to, and I don’t know why. They can’t direct it, fight with it, heal with it. Except you.”

  Phoebe tried to hide her shiver but failed.

  “Oh yes, I know what you are. None of the foolish merfolk knew what they were dealing with, letting their son and daughter sport around with a human with sea magic in her blood like you. You call all of us, even me, little girl, and I’m a merfolk simply because of the body I chose to borrow. Once I’m finished with this one, you’ll lose that advantage, I assure you. For you know who I am. Tell me.”

  “You’re Baleros, the ancient sea beast,” Phoebe managed to whispe
r. The darkness weighed on her heavier than it had since her days at Bentwood’s. At least the paralyzing horror she’d felt from the oozing red shadow was vastly diminished, perhaps contained by the seawee’s body.

  “That was me. My own true body is slowly waking in the Lake of Dragons where it can heal best. My children moved my body to this deepest, safest place for this final moment. “

  So somewhere in this trench, deep in the black pits of that impossible lake within the ocean, the giant shadow was grumbling in its sleep, perhaps tossing and turning its many tentacles, full of poison and power. She knew if she had to face that, she’d die. Ice ran through her veins.

  “Soon I will arise in full. My consciousness is here, borrowing this merchild’s body until I can wake my physical shape. It’s close now. My body will be awakened once you open the door for me with your magic.”

  “My magic?” Phoebe said, startled. She braced herself for what the creature might do, but he only laughed.

  “Well, I could take over your body like this one, but it’s a tedious process and one I doubt would go smoothly with someone like you. I sensed you before, when my servant first tried to bring you to me as food.”

  Baleros continued, “I felt your magic fight back and knew you were more powerful than any of the others. That was the whole point of luring you into the sea with the mer-tear, silly girl. I’m not all evil, you see. I won’t kill you. You’ll probably even revert to human form once the last drop of magic is drained from your little body. I am quite sure your mermaid form, completely transformed as you are, should be able to unlock the boundless magic all around us.”

  All Phoebe’s breath left her. By feeding this sea beast, she was actually putting the merfolk in more danger than they ever would have been without her. What a complete failure.

  An image of Sierra sprang to mind, face set with grim determination. And Nell. Neither of them would be scared, Phoebe thought. They would fight. Nell would certainly be able to use her sword to escape, and Sierra would stop at nothing to reach her goal. But if Phoebe attacked Baleros now, what would happen to the young seawee himself, his consciousness trapped in his own mind? Phoebe couldn’t pass up the chance, even a small one, to save him if he could be set free from the control of the evil sea beast.

  This wasn’t a fight she could win with sword and steel, anyway. Those were never her weapons and never had been. She’d spent her life singing, helping others, caring for others. And while Sierra was mastering the use of a bow, Phoebe was cowering in a prison cell. She hadn’t even tried to fight back. It just wasn’t in her nature. She was no Sierra.

  Phoebe alone stood between this evil creature and all the power he used to have. She remembered Tristan’s stories, the dark times that brought about the destruction of the golden era of the merfolk. Baleros had done that. He could do it again. She had never wished so deeply for the power to change something.

  “Well, what will it be? You will help me. The question is: will it be the easy way or the hard way?”

  “Why should I help you? You’ll kill the merfolk anyway if I give you my power. And you’ve already proven you can’t take it from me without my consent.”

  Baleros tsked and shook his head. “You shouldn’t make assumptions. No, I wouldn’t kill the merfolk. Remember, I am part of the sea, too, though of course I’m a killer whale compared to a merfolk’s minnow.”

  He chuckled, but then his eyes darkened, glistening with power and madness. “I don’t need to kill them, not anymore. No, no, no. What a waste of manpower. I would simply enslave them. I hear they allowed themselves to be enslaved for years already. And by humans, of all the disgusting things. You’d enslave them yourself if you stayed, what with that charming magic of yours. Just another reason why you can’t remain here. There can only be one master.”

  Phoebe flinched. It didn’t matter that she herself had never used a merfolk as a slave. Entire cities of humans had for years. Now that she knew she could actually force the merfolk to do as she chose, the guilt hit too close to home.

  The beast in the boy’s body smirked. “Hmm. Yes. At any rate, this way, their service would be to their own king. Because I am the rightful king of the ocean, which includes the merfolk. I’ll take care of them, the way an adult must care for wayward, disobedient children. The merfolk would flourish with some strong leadership for a change.”

  They might need stronger leadership, but someone like Tristan, not like this thing. “You are nothing here, Baleros. I’ll never help you!”

  It was the wrong thing to say.

  The child-beast snickered, a low, rippling sound that was powerful and evil and completely wrong coming out of a child’s mouth. The soul-crushing edge of the shadow thrummed through it. The sound disappeared, and there was such a deep silence for a long moment that only the roaring of Phoebe’s heartbeat filled her ears.

  The waves above were just long-lost memories. She had surely been in this dark cavernous temple forever, trapped with a madman. Fear battered at her, but she pushed it away.

  Baleros said, “You think you’re brave now. I respect that. But know this, girl—my body is not like yours or even my wraiths’. Mine is beyond your imagination, and once you see it, your mind will break. So help yourself and work with me in this form. You do not want to make me angry. My servants and I aren’t evil, no more than is the shark and the giant squid. Just different than your happy little merfolk, always dancing about. Wasting time. Wasting their talents.”

  “I won’t help you. The merfolk deserve a peaceful life.”

  “I thought you might react that way. Luckily, I’m always prepared.”

  The three other water wraiths erupted out of the darkness, spiraling around Phoebe, a whirling cyclone of red eyes and sharp teeth. All coming at her.

  hoebe tried to summon the blue light, but panic rose instead. Nothing happened.

  Two wraiths grabbed her wrists while another held her tail.

  “What are you doing?” she screamed. Suddenly, she was ten years old again. Phoebe stifled a sob. She had sworn she would never be powerless again.

  Baleros rifled through her memories like a stack of cards. He didn’t even need to use the wraiths to reach her now. Being full of sea magic came with its own ties to this creature. She tried to block him, tried to reverse the line of magic to him as she had with the wraith, but met a wall of seamless steel. The beast smirked, acknowledging her attempt and labeling it unimportant in one devastating second.

  “I see Bentwood tied you to a stake, little girl. Whipped and beaten. Hmm. You cried a great deal, yes indeed. You probably didn’t even need breaking, weak little human that you were.” Baleros all but hissed the words, any pretense at cheerful camaraderie gone.

  “You will do as I say,” the sea beast continued. “If you refuse, I will simply hurt you until you obey. I’ll do a better job at it than his men did, too. What do you say to that?”

  Phoebe couldn’t think. She couldn’t move. Couldn’t. Move. Somehow a wooden mast from a sunken ship had speared up from the darkness, put into place by one of the wraiths, and during their dizzying turmoil they had tied her wrists behind the mast, stretching her arms back so far that her shoulders ached. Her tail fin was tied to it as well, right at the most narrow spot where her ankles used to be. She jerked against her bindings, mindlessly yanking until the ropes cut into her wrists, pulling the knots tighter. Despair swamped her. Baleros loomed closer, his innocent little seawee face with malevolent red eyes grotesque to behold.

  The wraiths surrounded her, their faces alight with an evil joy. One held a switch of sea grasses. Another held some sort of scourge. A basket full of jelly fish floated beside one. Gaping, toothy angler fish were on a leash with another.

  “My servants will enjoy your terror, little fishy.” And then the first claw sliced down her arm, leaving a wispy trail of blood rising like smoke into the water. Her blood.

  Time flowed in jerks and stops. Lashes across her shoulders stung, and a hars
h buzzing filled her ears. Confusing sets of sensations and images flashed and disappeared, one after another. Cuts along her tail burned. Disorienting fragments of the present stuck with her briefly but then shook loose. A shocking close up view of sharp teeth was followed by darkness.

  Phoebe embraced the chance to retreat. Ignoring her body’s pain, she hid away in a corner of her mind, refusing to awaken. Only more torment would be waiting. But somewhere in the depths of her misery, she remembered: Tristan was coming back for her. He couldn’t come here. They would take him, and he would suffer, perhaps worse than this. They weren’t killing her. They needed her, but they wouldn’t need him.

  She came to with a scream. The world snapped into focus. The light was brighter now, and she squinted to see that Baleros was lounging nearby, looking bored. The wraiths swam around her in a steady circle.

  “Oh, good, you’re back. My wraiths were getting tired of waiting for the fun to begin again. I’ve held off the sharks for a bit, because we aren’t done here. They know a bigger predator when they meet one. But maybe if you don’t cooperate, they can have you when I’m done.”

  She could barely stifle a plea to stop.

  “Or you could just send me your magic, and we’d be all finished here. So easy, so quick. So painless.”

  As much as Phoebe hated herself for it, in that moment, she was tempted. The power she thought would keep her safe couldn’t save her from this. But she couldn’t give in. She loved Tristan and the merfolk too much. They were worth any price.

  And when that thought floated into her mind, a deep peace came with it, sinking into her like an anchor. She lifted her head and met the eyes of Baleros, packaged in the body of an innocent seawee.

  His eyes widened in response, as if sensing a change.

  Panic receded. This was reality. This was her now. She could wish she had never come here, but that would mean wishing she had never seen Tristan’s home, never met his family, never kissed him. She couldn’t wish for that. Instead, she wished for the strength to not give in. She managed to whisper, “I won’t help you. Not even if you kill me.”