by Ros Baxter
Mother of us all, I thought, she’s gonna do it.
My mind raced for a clever solution, but couldn’t find one. I was going to have to try brute force. I was about to give Carragheen a signal, but he was already in my mind.
I don’t think we can, Rania, I think she’ll be quicker.
No choice, I responded. Now.
With that I launched myself at her, aiming to drive my thumb and forefinger against the fragile flesh and bone of her throat, disable her before she could get to work on us. My fingers were almost there, I could almost see how her eyes were going to look as I stabbed at her neck, and I was disgusted to realize I wanted to hurt her the way she’d hurt me.
But Carragheen was right, she was faster, and after she did it I realized why. Why they’ve always been faster. Because all she had to do was utter one single, perfect note, while she held that thing asunder. She was no Imogen, no Lecanora, in the singing stakes, but it had the desired effect. Whatever she did, however she did it, the weapon was activated.
We heard nothing, and I thought about what Rick had said: like a dog whistle.
All four of us were instantly hit, and we went down onto the sandy floor, onto our knees, a blinded, seething mess of pain and fear. The last lucid thought I had was:
How can something so deadly be so silent?
Before I succumbed to the sea of pain, I looked up at her, and could see the triumphant smile on her face. She knew she had us. She knew her plans were safe.
She was gloating. The little bitch was gloating as we writhed and died in front of her. Imogen. Lecanora. Carragheen. Me. And it was all the extra incentive I needed to summon the last atom of my strength and seek out Carragheen’s mind. I could hardly locate it among the smoke-blue fog of pain and struggle, but I did. One last silver thread that was still him, even amid the shock and bite of it.
I sent a tiny message into the part that was left. Help me, sing with me. I felt him pick up the thought and claw back through the deep mire of the thing that was attacking us, clamp down hard on the parts of my mind that he could find, and seek out his song. I did the same.
At first it was thready, I was fighting so hard against the agony of what she was doing to us. But then I looked at Rila again, saw her gloating triumph, and the rage took hold.
It made my song stronger, and my strength seemed to feed Carragheen, and his song swelled and nourished me. I had no idea what notes to utter, but then I looked over at Imogen and Lecanora, mute and cowering, and a protective surge was added to the white hot flash of my fury. It changed the song, and Carragheen’s voice followed mine, keeping tune with me the way his mind was clinging to the parts of mine he could find.
And as we sang, the pain receded a little. Not completely, it still filled all of the available spaces of our bodies and our brains, but it released its deathlike grip a little. Now I consciously tried to feed it. The song. I thought about all the things I knew and loved about Lecanora. Her beauty, and her brilliance. Our shared history. How kind she was to me when everyone else was not. How much my mother loves her. Something in that thought almost tripped me up for a moment, but I brushed it aside. I had to focus. I had to do this right.
Carragheen started feeding thoughts and memories into my brain. He could see how this thing was working too. He was thinking about the two of us dancing at the wedding, and about the dance of the dolphins, and kissing me on his bed. Whatever it was I was doing made the song stronger still, the notes higher, more perfect. The pain receded further.
I could see it was having the same effect on Imogen and Lecanora too. Their eyes focused again, they were watching without looking crippled. We were doing it. Protecting them. And Rila looked different too. Afraid. She raised the thing higher and her note changed. It was shriller, had a more vicious edge. The pain redoubled. The singing was starting to take a toll on Carragheen and me. I could feel it draining my strength, and wondered how long I could go on. I felt the answering fear in Carragheen’s brain, and a part of me started to surrender.
We tried, I thought, as I felt the song start to let go, and the pain start to build again, towards what could only be the end of us all. At least we tried.
Chapter Sixteen
The End of The Beginning
The Cave of Sighs
I was almost broken, as the thing that seemed to be coming from the box screamed and squealed higher, ever higher. We’d been winning against it, defeating it, but we began to lose our strength before we could overcome it. I was still singing, and so was Carragheen, but the song was a weak trickle from us now, and the pain was almost overwhelming.
I glanced over at Lecanora and Imogen, and I saw that their eyes were closed and the protection we had been able to afford them for a few, brief moments was waning. They were once again in the thrall of the thing.
I felt like we needed more, more fuel, more… oomph. An extra person, singing with us. I looked over at Lecanora and Imogen, and cursed their muteness. My gaze wouldn’t leave Lecanora’s face, and the truth hit me like a sledgehammer to my gut. If only she were able to join with us, we could overcome this thing, I knew it. My eyes bore into her, my mind too defeated to plead with hers, but my heart trying to offer her whatever she needed, the last shreds of my strength if it would help. As I looked, Lecanora’s eyes fluttered open.
We gazed at each other for what felt like hours, but could be only seconds. And then I saw Rila note the look that passed between us, and a renewed spark of fury and defiance light her eyes. I saw her throat ululate, like some mad howling witch, and I heard the note that she was singing start to change. It was impossibly high, like she was trying to call something made of pure evil from the depths of the little box she was holding.
With the last breath of energy in my body, I noticed, almost with disinterest, that the box started to shake and glow. It was quivering, alive, as it started to unleash the worst hell of its arsenal. But, somehow, I don’t know how, it released another thing as well.
A beam of something silver arced across the water. To Lecanora.
My mind was unable to comprehend what was happening, but as soon as the thing flashed across in front of us, Lecanora picked up the embers of the dying note coming from me, and from Carragheen, and started to sing. I don’t know how she summoned the energy. The pain was so intense at this point it was sucking the water-breath from my body, but somehow she picked up my thought and started to sing. And the spark she lit ignited the song anew.
Carragheen and I felt the pain start to recede again and the cool fanning breath of relief and healing. It was like beating back an inferno, and we were able to join with Lecanora, our song swelling into a primal call of fury and protection. I glanced at Imogen and an icy fear almost chilled my throat. She looked like there was no life left in her, as though the last blast from the thing Rila was holding had been her ruin.
I wouldn’t believe it.
I sang right to her, right into her. I was trying to fill her up with this song, these notes we were somehow making that had a power greater than each of us alone. At first nothing happened. She continued to lie lifeless and broken on the sandy floor. But then she began to stir, and she raised her head and looked at me. Even through the song, which was filling my head like the heady joy of childhood, I could hear the words forming in her brain.
Thank you.
Within moments, we again had the advantage. Rila was still holding the box above her head, and I knew that the weapon was still doing its thing, but it was powerless against us, against the combined thread of our love and our fury. Our song. Rila could see it too, and she looked increasingly agitated. Then terrified. She was alone, in the deep darkness of the ocean. With a weapon that was no longer working.
And four very pissed mermaids.
I felt my fingers start to flex as they again filled with desire to stab at her throat with them, to disable her. I moved towards her, planning to do so, and she seemed paralyzed. She was still singing the pain out at us, but she looked
like she had no idea what to do next. I was closing on her, and I could see her face turn red with the effort she was using to channel the energy of the thing.
Before I could get to her, something else closed in ahead of me. Rila was suddenly still, surprised. I noticed her lower the thing, and look at it, shocked.
It was really glowing now. It was crimson red and almost looked to be beating, like it was alive. Rila started to raise her hands to her ears, and then before I could piece together what was happening, she was on her knees on the ocean floor. The three of us stopped singing, knowing the horror of what was happening to her, but unable to stop it.
She was screaming and writhing, and looking up at me with pleading eyes.
Even with all that she’d done, I knew in that moment I would turn it off. Make it stop hurting her. If I could. But I didn’t know how.
Within seconds, the pulsing box seemed to have reached some macabre crescendo, and the twisted girl on the ocean floor reared up and arched her back, like she was possessed. And then she disappeared. It was hard to find the words for what happened to her.
One moment she was there. Real, alive. In agony, sure, but flesh and bone.
And then she was gone. Her particles scattered through the water like dust.
Lecanora, Carragheen and I looked at each other in mute astonishment. There were no words. We were spent, shattered by the energy of what had been required of us, and by the emotional force of what we had just seen.
A girl with a twisted dream, blown to pieces before our eyes.
As Carragheen wordlessly picked up Imogen and began to bind her to him again, and I collected the now-still box, I saw that Lecanora had sufficient energy for only one piece of telepathic communication. She was too exhausted to send it on a private channel.
Mother. I am well. Seize Kraken. We are coming.
The Queens’ Chambers, Aegira
On our return, we gathered in the Queen’s chambers.
Carragheen, Lecanora, Imogen and me. And Mom.
Not just to explain it all, but for something else. Safety. Solace. Comfort.
Oh, and there was someone else there too. Rick, the dolphin. He’d been waiting with the two mothers when we returned. Imd had called him to her to help us on our return. She did not allow any of us to speak until he had tended us. This time I gratefully swallowed the disgusting medicine he produced, knowing that it would speed my recovery, and hopefully allow my fractured mind to start to make some sense of all that happened, back in the blackness. I even managed to connive a little extra of the special medicine from Rick, thoughts of Doug uppermost in my mind. Now, I just needed Zorax to teach me how to get it through the hydroport…
At the Queen’s insistence, I allowed Rashind, The Chief Healer, to check me over also. I wasn’t keen to permit the examination. I don’t know him, and the circle of people I trusted was really, really small. Especially now. But he was very gentle, and as I watched him work, checking me over and talking softly to me, I was struck by what a steady soul he was. I decided I liked him. I was willing to reserve trust for another time, but he at least passed the first hurdle.
Relief that it was over still pulsed through me, as solid and real as the fish of life.
But I was looking forward to some answers.
“What is it?” The Queen was turning the box over in her hands as she sat in front of us, a picture of relief and puzzlement. None of us was sure who should answer. None of us knew.
I was glad Rick was here for the de-brief, and that he started to tell the tale. I looked to him now for an answer to Imd’s question.
It is nothing, just a receptacle.
Imd wanted more. Then, how?
Rick squeaked a confused click. It held something. Some kind of device. Something very sophisticated from what Rania and Lecanora have been telling me.
Imd pressed. What do you think it was, Defender of Aegira?
Rick puffed up at the affection, as Imd had intended. My best guess is that it uses an EMP. Electro-magnetic pulse. Probably crossed with micro-nuclear technology, which your energy guys have been experimenting with for a while. Making smaller, more efficient, less wasteful power sources. But the neat part is the sonar activation. It seemed to respond to a pre-programmed sound trigger, in this case a single, particular note.
Imd continued. But how did it steal the voices, friend?
Rick shook his dignified dolphin head, and for the first time I really bought that he was now a member of the High Council of Dolphins. He really looked the part, there in the Queen’s chambers, answering her questions with such poise.
I do not know. We do not know. But perhaps they took Imogen’s voice, and Lecanora’s, with some kind of amplified recording system. And they used the voices to magnify the EMP, make it into a weapon, silent and yet made of concentrated sound. I can only guess that it’s a prototype, judging by how the Princess described the malfunction, the effect it had on Rila.
Mom entered the fray, her frown indicating concern at something she’d just heard.
A prototype? But we have Kraken now.
Rick inclined his head again, in that cool way that only dolphins and Indians from the sub-continent can pull off with such panache. It would be nice to think he is the end of this.
Mom was not appeased. But you don’t?
Rick turned to me. What do you think, babe?
I thought about Rila’s words, her talk of pursuit of a higher end, and I wondered whether those higher ends were really just Kraken, or whether there was more.
I don’t know. But something tells me that it’s not over yet.
I wanted it to be over. I wanted the world to be safe. May the Goddess help me, I wanted to be safe. But I knew better than anyone that wanting it don’t make it so. The visions… I’ve sensed that others will come into play, before this is done, before Aegira knows peace.
Mom was nodding her head thoughtfully. I, also, cannot believe that Kraken is the apex of this. And I know much of him, and the things of which he is capable. She looked at me, hesitating, and at Lecanora, and in the look was the shadow of the conversation we had to have.
We all reflected for a moment on Kraken, and I thought about how hard this must be for Mom, who had been his lover. I didn’t know much; only that Kraken had been seized, and was even now being questioned using a special serum extracted from lighsa weed. A truth serum.
There was so much I didn’t understand, so much I wanted to know, so much to ask Rick.
But I’m practical, so my immediate thoughts were for the logistics. Rick, what do you know of the singing? How is it that we were able to sing to protect ourselves, and the others? And why did Lecanora make all the difference? I paused, embarrassed by the thought that had plagued me since it all occurred. Is this it now, Rick? Are we The Three, of the Prophesy? Lecanora, Carragheen, and I?
Rick laughed. Oh, Rania, you know I can’t tell you that. But I have told you before that none of The Three wear pants. Don’t you remember?
All eyes swivelled to Carragheen, looking particularly fine in a pair of tight, cropped pants worn by Aegiran men to aid water travel. He shrugged. Hey, I never asked for greatness. Perfectly happy to be left out of that exclusive club.
But I was dogged. So why did Lecanora singing matter?
Rick sighed. Rania, I’m not being cagey. I really don’t have these answers. The best I can do for you is to say that I think, from all I have heard, that it was the connections between the three of you that took the song to the next level.
I shook my head. The love? Between me and Lecanora, and me and Carragheen?
Rick twitched his head. No, Rania. The blood. The blood that connects you all.
It took a moment, but in the dark recesses of my overworked brain pennies began to drop into place. I looked at Mom.
“There is so much to tell,” she began.
As I surveyed the room, I saw that we were all hanging on her words. All except the Queen. She knows, I thought. Whatever
Mom is about to tell us, she already knows.
Mom’s good at storytelling, but she obviously decided there were some salient points that needed to be covered immediately, before filling in the blanks, so she was direct. “Rania, Lecanora is your sister. Yours too, Carragheen.”
Oh Sweet Mother, I was never good at this stuff. Please tell me that this doesn’t mean that Carragheen and I are somehow related.
“Relax, Rania,” Carragheen said. “If I’m following this, you and I definitely have different mothers and different fathers. We’re safe.”
Every cell in my body whooped with delight. And I slotted the parts in place.
“You and Kraken,” I said to Mom. “The lovers’ ears. Lecanora is two years older than me. She’s your daughter. Yours and Kraken’s. And so, Ran help me, she’s my sister. My half-sister. And… and she’s Carragheen’s half-sister too, because they have the same father. The connections, I understand. But why…? Why did you leave? How could you have left her?”
I was looking at Lecanora, expecting to see her furious and impatient for answers. Expecting to see in her the answering echo of my own surprise, and confusion and anger at our mother. But even though I could tell this was as much of a surprise to her as it was to me I could also tell, from one glance at her straight shoulders and soft face, that she was not angry. I saw her go sit between the Queen, and my Mom. Her Mom too, I corrected myself. She took a hand of each, and her message was devastatingly clear. If these are my mothers, then I accept them both. I am here for them. Both.
“Mom,” I croaked hoarsely. “We need the truth. You need to tell us everything.”
“Yes,” Mom said, nodding as she held my hand. “I understand. Now is the time.” We gathered around her, and she began.
“We were young, and in love. Kraken and I. We both had dreams of making the world better. Me, like all young women, through song. Kraken through politics. But things changed after he returned from the land. He had been gone so long, and I’d missed him desperately.”