by Lucia Ashta
“Lead the way, Mordecai,” she said. “We’re wasting time. When the others wake, they very well may follow, and if they do, that’ll defeat the purpose of missing out on our beauty rest. If Gustave arrives before we return and he discovers where I’ve gone, he’ll head straight here. And if he takes the time to transform Gertrude before doing it, she might come too, because I have the feeling she’s like me as well.”
Gertrude was much like I was, and if I was like Grand-mère, then she was right. If Gertrude had the chance, she’d head straight into this water to try to save me. And it wouldn’t matter to her who she might face or her lack of magic. My little sister had always had enough courage for the both of us.
“How long have Grand-mère and I been out?” I asked Mordecai.
“I’m not sure. Time passes differently here. I’ll guess close to an hour.”
“Then we have to go right now, and we have to hurry. Grand-mère’s right. The others will follow once they realize we’re missing.”
Grand-mère and I looked expectantly at the old wizard. “I agree with both of you. The problem is, I don’t know where exactly we find Mirvela or Count Washur. I had plenty of trouble finding the two of you.”
“They must be close,” Grand-mère said.
“Why?” I asked. “Wouldn’t they run as far away from us as possible?” It’s what I’d do. The ocean is huge. I’d flee to the opposite end of it.
“Magicians like them don’t think like you do. They’ll want to stay close so they can monitor us and look for an opening for attack.”
“Attack?” I said weakly. Of course they’d attack. It just sounded so… terrible, like a line from someone else’s life, not mine.
Mordecai put a gentle hand on my back. His gesture felt strange beneath the water. “You do realize what they’re like, don’t you? Ariadne’s right. They’ll be as close as they can be to watch us while keeping far enough away that we can’t spot them. It’s probable that they intend to kill us.”
It was likely more a certainty than a probability.
“Once magicians cross the line and take life to suit their needs, there’s little they won’t do. Death becomes the easy option.”
What’s happened to my life that I’ve entered a world where death might be the easy option? I gulped. “Then let’s go find them before they can find us… or any of the others.” Because in the end, this was about cutting our losses as much as we could. We’d already had losses—deep, terrible ones. Our best choice now was to limit any further damage. And for better or worse, the responsibility was on Mordecai, Grand-mère, and me.
“I don’t know which way to go to find them, child,” Mordecai said. “We can wander and see if we run into them.”
“Or if they try to attack,” Grand-mère added. “If they see us and think us distracted or weak or even if they just grow bored of waiting, or want to try to take us out before our numbers have the chance to grow, they might attack. And then we can take them on.”
These sounded like terrible options. Maybe the weight of all this water above our heads was getting to them. Even if I could hear their voices much as if we were on land, it wasn’t the same. Nothing was much the same with so much of the water element surrounding us.
Which made me think… with so much water everywhere, I imagined the water element could signal the way to our enemies. If I connected with it at a deep level, I could show the element Mirvela and Washur were misusing it. In this case, perhaps the element, ordinarily objective, might betray the magicians that used it to steal the free will from others.
The five elements understood free will and freedom, the ability to fully reveal themselves for what they were, to follow their paths to fruition.
“I have an idea,” I said. I was already hoping it would work, because it was something I’d never heard of before.
Chapter 6
“What is it, my Clara? What are you going to do?” Grand-mère asked.
Mordecai took her by the arm and led her to swim a few feet away. “Let her be, Ariadne. Give her some space to do whatever she’s thought of.”
“But what’s she going to do?”
“I don’t know. I never seem to know what’s she’s going to do before she does it.”
“I don’t understand. How can that be? You’re a skilled wizard.”
“Of course I am, but Clara accesses magic differently than anyone else I’ve ever met. Don’t you remember how she interacted with the fire back at the castle? When you scolded her for putting herself in danger, touching the flame?”
Grand-mère’s eyes went from Mordecai to me, and back. “I thought that was just some kind of accident, something that had never happened before.”
“Things that have never happened before happen to Clara all the time. She does a different kind of magic without using spells.”
“Why, if she doesn’t use spells, how does she do magic? I don’t understand, Mordecai, you’re making no sense.”
Mordecai smiled. “That’s because Clara’s magic makes little sense to anyone but her, but there’s no doubt that she’s doing magic—very powerful magic, the kind I believe the magical world has been waiting for all these centuries.”
“You think my granddaughter is the one to guide the magical world into a new era? Is this what you are saying, Mordecai?”
“It is. It’s what I’ve come to believe, and it’s what the runes suggest. Clara is no ordinary witch. She does magic by connecting with the elements in an entirely different way. She bypasses spells and works by connecting her essence to the essence of the elements, or at least that’s what I think she does. Do you know, she’s even discovered a fifth element?”
“But… there’s no fifth element. There are only four: water, earth, air, and fire,” but even as she said it, Grand-mère’s voice was laced with awe and doubt. “Can there really be another?”
“There is. I was there when she first discovered it. I haven’t seen it myself, but I’ve seen what she calls the five-petal knot, glowing within her chest. It was glowing just a while ago, before you woke.”
My face started to color, thinking that the glow would’ve been all the more apparent with my nudity, but then I went back to not caring; I couldn’t let myself. We had bigger matters to worry about than my ability to turn up naked in front of an audience, time and again. Neither Mordecai nor Grand-mère appeared even to notice our lack of clothing. They had their priorities resolved: life and death matters over trivialities—but neither of them was a young woman raised to be modest.
It was time to think like a mermaid again, which I’d done for several years, when I’d been at complete ease in the sea.
“Just wait,” Mordecai was saying. “Watch her and see what she does. You might be able to notice it.”
It was also time to block out their conversation, even if I was enjoying listening to Mordecai recount the way I did magic, and to hear Grand-mère’s reaction.
We had things to do, and it didn’t matter one bit that I didn’t wish to do any of them. I’d do them just the same, and the sooner we got to them, the better.
After that, I didn’t hear any more of their conversation; I wasn’t even sure if they were having one. I was intent on reaching out to the water element.
But before I did that, I went within, to find the five-petal knot that bound all elements together, to the source of all magic, to the place where the elements experienced who I was and I sensed them easiest. I hadn’t discovered the fifth element that long ago, but already I’d learned that it was better to go within before going outside of oneself.
The five-petal knot was there, humming its readiness. Every time I searched for it, it was easier to find, more receptive to my urging. I allowed myself to appreciate it for several moments, to notice its perfect symmetry, the way it glowed and vibrated as the strands of each of the five elements entwined with one another. They achieved perfect balance with a grace that was beyond human. Each of the elements possessed their own innat
e perfection; they had a way of being, an essence that was only theirs to have.
And there among the other strands was the water element, bright and pulsing. Here within the ocean it was strongest. On land it could flood and rain in torrents; it could wash the world away. Yet within the sea it was more powerful, and I wondered at what it could achieve here. I suddenly realized how completely we were at its mercy, how easily it could extinguish life.
But that was the way with the elements always. They provided the means for life, just as they could take them away—in a flash. Nothing in life was ever guaranteed, but I would fight for what I had. For the unexpected blessing of love and the hope of a life shared with a good magician and a better man. For the chance at being reunited with my beloved sister and reacquainting myself with my grandmother. For the opportunity to see Brave discover who he’s capable of being, something far beyond what Count Washur ever intended for him.
And for all of that to happen and more, I had to locate Washur and Mirvela before they could pounce on us.
I reached out the invisible fingers of my mind to strum the filament of the water’s magic. I experienced a tingling sensation as the water element engaged me.
Then I surprised myself by doing something I’d never done before. I led my mind toward the edge of the water element strand and then dove in. Instantly, I felt radically different than ever before in my lifetime. I’d become a part of the water element. Human thoughts and concerns fled and left the easy view of life and death that could only come from an objective element that didn’t view death as a termination of anything, but a transformation of energy. There was no beginning in birth and no end in death. There was only constant movement, shrinking and growing, compressing and expanding.
And now I was a part of it. My heart released all worry and eased. From this space, there could only be perfection. Every action played its part in the intricate web of life and forward momentum. In the end, there was balance, even if this balance could only be visible at the highest level. Yet its peace could be experienced without a hawk’s view, if one had faith.
I might’ve stayed within the water element forever, experiencing its power and flowing ease. I certainly no longer held onto the need to protect my loved ones and to defend against darkness. Within the water, there was no such thing. If a person died, it was a perfect part of the flow. If the same person lived, then it was for another perfect reason that would come around and complete so many different parts of the greater plan of existence.
But through the water, I sensed two large life forms near me that stood out from the rest of the sea life. It was natural from there to search for others, to stretch through the water to see what else I might find.
There was so much life within the water that was barely visible to the human eye, especially in the darkness of deep depths. I was tempted to remain with it, to experience what it might be like to swim amongst a school of fish or a lonesome sea turtle.
But there were bigger things that beckoned me, active, swarming, busy things that pulled me toward them.
Beyond vast stretches of the ocean floor and a deep trench that sank into a darkness so rich that it became a separate, living thing. Then over a plate in the ocean floor as tall as a small mountain. Behind that, a mervillage, with many souls.
And with four particular ones I’d experienced before.
Chapter 7
It took me a long while to realize I wasn’t actually part of the water element and that I could—should—disengage from it. It was no surprise that Mirvela’s illusions that held me a willing captive of the merworld beneath Irele Castle for more than three years worked as well as they did. The water was naturally enchanting, and I could see how any magic cast within it would so easily convince its unsuspecting victim as it had me. Grand-mère and I nearly killed each other because of the conviction of an illusion cemented by the ethereal quality of the water.
But I felt what I later realized were Grand-mère and Mordecai, watching me, waiting for me. In time, I remembered why I’d entered the water element and whom I’d been searching for.
In the end, I hadn’t located Mirvela and Count Washur in the way I’d intended. It seemed like my magic never turned out as I believed it would. There’d been no need to distinguish the dark magicians from my friends and myself, to reveal how it was that they abused their magic through the use of the elements. From within the element, none of these things mattered. The black and white of right and wrong were absent. Harmony overpowered them in the long run.
But the water had led me to the magicians we sought, anyway, and the more I withdrew from the water element, the more I remembered why I’d delved within it to begin with.
By the time I blinked open my eyes into Grand-mère and Mordecai’s stares, I remembered everything, and I experienced a deep calm I hoped I’d manage to carry with me across an ocean floor, a trench, and a mountain, to where I knew we must go.
“I know where they are.” I smiled lazily. I might remember why I was in the water and what we must do next, but my previous sense of urgency hadn’t returned.
“You do? That’s most excellent. Where are they?” Mordecai said while Grand-mère continued to stare.
“Far away. They aren’t watching us at all, at least not anymore.”
“That’s great.”
Everything still felt great to me, so I smiled wider.
“I can’t believe it,” Grand-mère said in the tones of someone whose thoughts are very far away. “She’s just as you said, Mordecai.”
The old man smiled. “I told you she does magic differently than the rest of us.”
“Without a doubt.” Grand-mère shifted her gaze to me. “Your chest was glowing, my darling. You are extraordinary.”
Life felt extraordinary just then, like the greatest gift of all, the ability to experience every bit of it so deeply, so richly. I met amber eyes so much like mine, even if they traveled to different places.
Mordecai interrupted the moment. “So where are Mirvela and Washur, child? How far away are they?”
“Quite far, but I’ll be able to find the way. They’re in a mervillage.”
Grand-mère snapped out of her contemplation. “A mervillage? That coward. She attempts to get me to murder my granddaughter, and then she goes and cowers among her people? Where’s the honor in that?”
Mordecai said, “I believe, dear Ariadne, that there isn’t any honor left to the merwitch, or the Count. They’ll protect their lives however they can.”
“So now we have to deal with a mervillage as well?” She sounded exasperated. “That complicates things, Mordecai. You and I might be experienced magicians, but to take on a whole mervillage, along with a dark merwitch and a powerful sorcerer? That might be too much even for us.”
“But we have Clara.”
Grand-mère squared herself to face Mordecai, hovering in the water, her anger highlighted by the faint glowing that continued to fade from within my chest. “I don’t want Clara to go there. She might have a different way of accessing magic, and yes, while this way might be new and extraordinary, powerful even, she’s only a young woman. And from what I’ve gathered, you haven’t even taught her much? Am I right?”
I waited for Mordecai to try to deny that he hadn’t taught me what he should have. But he didn’t. “You are right. I haven’t taught her enough to prepare her to face these dark magicians and a whole mervillage. But is there ever any real way to prepare for a challenge such as that? I’ve spent my entire life studying magic and I’m not sure I’m prepared for it.”
His voice softened to a whisper intended just for Grand-mère, even though I could hear it. “I believe we might need her if we hope to succeed. I’ve already bound both magicians, and still they’re able to do this level of magic. I fear we need something different than our kind of magic to have any chance of success.”
“I can work with the animals of the sea to make something happen,” she argued. “My magic with animals is strong,
and while it’s strongest with those that have magic within them, in this much water the animals will likely carry at least some water magic within them. They’ll respond to me.”
“Even so, will it be enough?”
“It could be.”
“But you can’t be certain.”
“Of course I can’t. But I refuse to risk my granddaughter’s life.”
“She chose to risk it herself. When she entered the water, she knew what she was doing, what risks she was taking, and she did it all to save the rest of us, just as we tried to do.”
It was nice to hear Mordecai giving me all this credit of forethought and analysis of risks and benefits, but the truth was that I hadn’t allowed myself to consider the risks too much. If I had, I’d probably be in bed, cowering behind the covers.
I was here now, and there was no going back, just as I’d intended it.
I spoke up, interrupting the conversation about me while I hovered a few feet away from them. “I’m going. I have to.”
Grand-mère swirled toward me after a threatening glare toward Mordecai. “Darling, no. You don’t have to. Leave it to us.”
“But you just said you might not be able to take down Mirvela and Washur on your own.”
“That’s true, ma cherie, but you might not be able to either. And we’re grown magicians, capable of holding our own.”
“You need me.”
I waited for Grand-mère to deny it, but she didn’t. Instead she said, “You could die.”
“So could you.”
“But I’m a woman who’s lived many years already. It wouldn’t be the same if your life, with all its blooming potential, were cut short. Think about it, my darling.”
“I already have,” I said, though I hadn’t much. What was there to think about? Two dark magicians had it out for us. Through no fault of our own, we’d become their targets. The only options I saw were to lie down, surrender, and allow them to use our souls and magic to fuel their own lives. Or to stand up and fight, or in this case, hover, swim, and take them out. The decision made itself because surrendering wasn’t an option.