Tides of Mana

by Matt Larkin

  A merman wrapped his arms around one of the shark’s dorsal fins and bit through it with his own shark-like jaws. The fish flailed out of control and more mer swarmed it, stabbing and biting and driving it into the sand.

  A slight shudder ran through Namaka from the effort. No matter how hard she tried, Nyi Rara’s presence seemed to interfere with her control. It took so much more out of her than it should have.

  Despite the loss of their advance forces, the Hiyoyan army still crashed into Mu’s, the bloody sea devolving into a blurry, incoherent melee Namaka could make little sense of. And she could do nothing to help Ake now, at least against the forces that were already here. Instead, rapid beats of her tail carried her around the battle, scouting for any fresh threats.

  “Where are the damn he‘e?” she asked.

  Late.

  They had to hold this position until help could arrive from the He’e Aupuni. It was only a few dozen miles away, but she didn’t know just how fast those octopuses could swim. Already Mu faced superior numbers.

  Just hold the line.

  Namaka grunted, and continued swimming until she had come around to Hiyoya’s side. There, waiting beyond a gorge—a whole other battalion of Hiyoyan mer, armed with some kind of bladed bracers strapped to their wrists. Most of them appeared to be watching the battle, but at least a few turned to face her.

  These forces must plan to wait until Mu had near exhausted itself then sweep in, fresh and quick to slaughter Mu’s broken lines. Maybe the he‘e would arrive in time, but Namaka wasn’t going to take that chance.

  You are not ready for this many foes.

  Right. Because those Hiyoyans were going to sit around and wait until she was. She had wiped out the better part of an island with a kai e‘e. She could handle a small army of mer.

  Nyi Rara pushed against her mind, trying to forestall her actions. Growling, Namaka slammed her will against the mermaid. It was time they did this her way. The mermaid inside her gasped, perhaps not expecting such a strong push.

  Namaka spread her arms in open invitation, in unveiled threat. Let these Hiyoyans come to her. Let these little bottom feeders try to take another home away from her.

  She clenched her fists and waters around them began to swirl, forming vortices. She was not a warrior. She was a goddess. “Come and get me!”

  Like that, a dozen of the Hiyoyan strike force launched themselves toward her. Namaka almost laughed. A dozen.

  As her enemies drew near, Namaka yanked her arms back in toward herself, pulling the sea around her in a swirling bubble. The other mer were sucked in, tossed about and spun around her. But she needed to do more than make them dizzy. She needed to make them see, to make them fear.

  Shrieking, she summoned the sea beneath them and shot them all upward like a shooting star falling in reverse, a ball that launched itself out of the sea and into the air. Namaka broke free of the ocean and for an instant was flying, the moonlight glinting off her skin and scales while the dozen mer beneath her tumbled around in her trap. Gravity caught her and yanked her down. Namaka turned, falling back into her ball and driving it down. The sea beneath it parted, swept aside in an inverted dome revealing the seabed just in time for the ball to slam her enemies into the sand. The next instant the weight of the ocean crashed around her.

  Her power enveloped her, sheltering her from the crushing weight of the falling waves until they stilled, and another beat of her tail carried her forward.

  She gasped, barely able to catch her breath, but filled with a euphoric sense of glory she could never have put into words. She could feel her mana, flowing through her, connecting her to all the endless sea.

  Hiyoya’s forces watched her, faltering, clearly too terrified to assault her. Wicked grin on her face, Namaka punched forward, intent on throwing a concussive wave in their midst. She did so, but merely knocked a few aside, carrying only a fraction of the weight she intended.

  She’d blown through too much mana. Indeed, her chest was heaving now. The events of the past days had not given her enough time to meditate and draw in energy.

  Dammit. Namaka looked to the regrouping Hiyoyan forces—they were converging on her.

  How much could she push it now without killing herself? Mana was life, and without it, her body and soul would give out. But none of that mattered if the Hiyoyans killed her.

  There, among them, she spotted Matsya, face a mask of anger and distress at seeing her here. She was done being afraid of him. Of any of them.

  Namaka stretched both hands out, once again inviting the forces of Hiyoya to attack. Then she swept them back together, shooting out a crossed current under the sea toward them. The waters responded to her desire—but not only toward the Hiyoyan army. They jetted out in all directions, colliding with her own fighting forces as well as the advancing Hiyoyan reserves.

  With a cringe, she looked over her shoulder to see the battle stalled for a moment. Mermaids and mermen lay scattered on the ocean floor, shaking themselves. Some floated limply, unconscious or worse. No.

  Not again. Not again.

  Godsdamn it! As long as Nyi Rara was there, she lost either power or control.

  “I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “Nyi Rara?”

  No answer came from the mermaid princess. The spirit had clearly driven herself into a torpor trying to control Namaka’s wild surges of power.

  In desperation, Namaka turned and fled, retreating behind the Muian lines. Had her power made enough of a difference on their side?

  She feared she’d know the answer all too soon.

  THE WAKE of battle left the sea a pink slurry, littered with severed arms, half-eaten faces, and mangled corpses. The scent of so much blood had Namaka ready to dive in and bite down on anything fleshy. Indeed, mer darted among the carnage in a feeding frenzy, and she couldn’t even say they were all on her side.

  Ake met her then, and she could smell his blood before she saw him. It trailed out of a kelp wrap where his left hand had been. His face was a grim mask, not giving away the pain he obviously felt so much as the anger at yet another devastating battle. “The he‘e did not show up.”

  No.

  What did that mean? That Kanaloa had refused Punga’s offer of Red Coral Reef? Or that … “They betrayed us.”

  Ake shook his head, clutching his arm to his chest. “Why?”

  “Mu once enslaved the he‘e.”

  “Yes.”

  “What if they’ve been waiting all these centuries for the chance at vengeance?”

  “Who would wait so long for revenge?”

  Namaka glowered. Oh, a person who felt wronged enough might wait an eternity to avenge the injustice. She knew it all too well. She’d fallen into that trap. “We have to get back to Mu.”

  NAMAKA SWAM faster than she had ever swum, even using the water to enhance her speed, shooting it out in jets behind her. Pushing herself, she could cover maybe thirty miles in an hour, but the jets helped her reach almost twice that. The undersea world blurred around her and still she feared she would arrive too late. If the he‘e had betrayed Mu, no help was on the way. And after the battle with Hiyoya had turned against them, the city might be woefully unprepared to face a new threat.

  By the time she neared the city, the sun had risen and set once more, and the city grown dark. The moment she slowed her pace, the sounds of battle assaulted her.

  We’re too late.

  Nyi Rara! Thank the ‘aumākua the mermaid princess had awakened. Did she know all that had happened?

  I know. Despite our pretenses of cooperation, neither of us holds full control. We seek symbiosis but find only disrupted equilibrium. We failed, utterly, because we are so very ill-suited to one another. Kuku Lau should have given your body to an older, stronger mer than myself, rather than striving so much to elevate our ‘ohana.

  We were fools, all of us, caught in our prideful currents and blind to the threats just beyond.

  Namaka had no answer for that. As she entered the
city, chaos greeted her. Mermaids and mermen struggled with he‘e everywhere she turned. Every window, every house seemed to reveal another octopus strangling a mer.

  Namaka darted into one of the houses where a he‘e had one arm around each of a mermaid’s arms, four holding her tail still, and two more crushing the poor girl. Wordless rage shrieked from Namaka’s mouth as she sent a jet of water slamming into the he‘e. The impact sent both attacker and victim colliding with the house wall. The mermaid’s eyes glazed over, but the he‘e almost instantly recovered. Its arms propelled it toward Namaka like a rock hurled from a sling, not swimming so much as launching itself at her.

  Twisting and ducking, she tried to avoid the creature, but it used its arms to alter its momentum so easily it crashed right into her. Before she could even react, those arms enwrapped her, constricting, suctioning onto her skin and scales. Namaka tried to scream but the he‘e wrapped one arm around her neck, cutting off all air. She grabbed at it and tried to pull it away. Though its skin was soft as velvet, the muscle beneath was like rock.

  Already her vision had begun to dim. A chill filled her as she lost control over her limbs. Then her vision cleared and she realized she was prying the arm away, tugging at it with inhuman strength—or rather Nyi Rara was using her body to do so. Pain lanced through her neck as suckers popped free of it. The he‘e wrapped other arms around her own, sapping even the mermaid princess’s strength.

  And then the other mermaid, the one she had come to save, collided with them, driving a coral lance through the he‘e’s head. The creature shrieked and released her in an instant. The entire house suddenly filled with a thick black ink that stung her eyes and would have made finding her way impossible. She felt the he‘e stream past her, heard its wails as it fled.

  Nyi Rara remained in control, however, and guided them out the door. For a moment Namaka rested, letting the mermaid princess manage things. The spirit used Namaka’s hand to massage her throat, to brush over the damage and check its extent.

  You will live.

  Namaka tried to answer, to thank the mermaid, but her voice came out as a gargle. Even that felt like trying to swallow a mouthful of magma.

  Give it a few moments.

  Everything had gone straight to Milu’s dark domain and Namaka hadn’t done a damn thing to stop it. Her powers had pushed the he‘e but had managed little else.

  It is an invertebrate.

  What did that mean?

  It has no bones. Throwing it against the wall isn’t going to daze it the way it would a human.

  Great. Good to know. So maybe if she had the powers of her sister she’d have a weapon against the he‘e. But if impact wasn’t going to hurt them, what good could she do with the sea? She needed to find Ake. He was a warrior, a leader. Maybe he would know what to do.

  The Commander is likely protecting the ‘ohana.

  Should Namaka head to the Dakuwaqa Estate herself? The mer said ‘ohana was everything. But if Mu fell, there would be no ‘ohana either. So what did the he‘e seek here? Kuula Palace? To kill Queen Aiaru?

  Was that the point of all this chaos? No, the he‘e had to have a bigger goal in mind. Kill Aiaru, and she would only take another host. All the other deaths—and dozens of mer bodies were now floating around the city—could well be a mere distraction. But if the he‘e took the Urchin there was no telling what they might accomplish.

  After massaging her throat one last time, Namaka darted for the palace. Merman guards struggled with dozens of he‘e in the entry hall. Her heart went out to them, but she had no idea how to help them. The other mermaid had stabbed that thing in the head and it hadn’t died.

  Their brains are not shaped like yours. They have three hearts. They can function even with the loss of many limbs.

  Wonderful. Namaka was starting to dislike octopuses.

  She swam through corridors, avoiding the battles while making her way as quickly as possible toward the great hall. Not that she had any idea what to do when she got there. But she was going to help Aiaru somehow. The mermaid queen was a bitch, yes, but at the moment, she seemed to be on Namaka’s side. Which meant Namaka had to do something. Too many people had died already.

  Shouts echoed from the great hall, sounds of battle and death, though the entryway was obscured by more of that damn ink.

  Namaka braced herself to dart inside the great hall. And then something dropped down on her from the ceiling. The he‘e had been all but invisible, its color and texture so perfectly matching that of the walls. In an instant, it had pinned her to the ground, arms trapping her tail, wrapping around her wrists.

  “Welcome home, princess.” The creature’s thick voice ushered from a beak uncomfortably close to her face. His position meant she was looking into its maw and couldn’t see its fathomless black eyes. But this had to be Punga. She knew it was.

  “Ambassador.” Namaka fairly spat the title at him.

  The he‘e raised one of its arms—how did he even have a free arm with so many holding her down?—to her face and drew it along her cheek. “One might suspect a queen on land ought to have remained there.” He knew who she was. He knew.

  That arm danced in front of her eyes, a hair’s breadth away, so close she could barely focus on it. And then, with slow inevitability, it lowered around her throat.

  The suckers latched on, but it wasn’t choking her. Not yet. Growing ever tighter. ‘Aumākua, the creature was killing her slowly, enjoying her fear at the impending end. Winning was not enough for this ghostfucker—he wanted to break her.

  That, more than anything, filled her with such gut-wrenching loathing that nothing else—not even fear—had room left inside her. These creatures were monsters, vile. And despite being born on Earth, they were less human than even the spirits from beyond Pō like Nyi Rara.

  Lend me your strength.

  Damn right. Namaka jerked against the he‘e, pulling with all her might.

  No—feed me your mana. Let it flow through me like a river. We have to try to achieve real symbiosis.

  Namaka had no idea what Nyi Rara intended, but she gave over fighting Punga. Let him think her resigned to the end. Let him think her broken. She shut herself down, feeling the energy within her, feeling the sea stretching out around her into forever. And she felt Nyi Rara there, waiting. Handing her the power was like clasping hands with an old friend.

  Bitter cold seeped into her core as her strength, her life poured from her, her mana being sucked up by this being inside her. It was like a river—or a waterfall—draining her until she would be nothing but an empty shell.

  Nyi Rara extended one of her fingers toward Punga. Her arm remained bound at the wrist, but around that one finger the sea began to coil, to swirl in a vortex no wider than her single digit. Above her, the he‘e turned, perhaps noticing the slight change in pressure around it.

  Nyi Rara released the vortex and it shot forward like a spear hurled by the mightiest warrior. That tiny jet of water, propelled with the force of a geyser, lanced through Punga’s eye and exploded out the other side of his head. His arms began to slack as he reeled, shrieking and pulling away from her.

  The cold in Namaka’s chest made breathing seem to take all her strength. Feeding Nyi Rara her power like that left her dizzy, unable to focus. But the mermaid princess wasn’t done yet. Namaka tried to break the spiritual grip the mermaid had on her, to sever the connection allowing the mermaid to feed on her mana, but it was no use. Nyi Rara shot another water lance at the retreating he‘e. This time the creature went limp, though its arms continued to move, as if searching for a way to escape despite multiple holes in its head.

  Gasping, Namaka reached out a hand before her own body gave out. Everything grew dark around her.

  SOMEONE WAS SHAKING HER AWAKE. Had she been out for a mere moment or for hours?

  Commander Ake he shook her again. “Princess.”

  Namaka groaned.

  Even I could not get your body to move. Now you know what it f
eels like to be so drained.

  ‘Aumākua, yes. Was that what Nyi Rara went through when she tried to control Namaka’s power on her own, without Namaka intentionally feeding her mana? Was there no way they could find a balance, a means through which they might both coexist?

  “What’s happened?” Namaka asked.

  “We’ve begun to drive out the he‘e,” Ake said, “but our losses are extreme. I don’t know if we can hold out against another wave.”

  “And the queen?”

  “Safe. But reports indicated the he‘e were headed to the gorge.” The gorge? Oh, ‘aumākua, the Urchin! “Princess Nyi Rara, I cannot leave the queen …” His eyes pleaded.

  Namaka moaned and dashed toward the chamber with all the speed she could still muster.

  WE MUST REACH THE URCHIN.

  Obviously.

  The he‘e are adept in the Art. There is no telling what they could accomplish with the Urchin’s power.

  Kanaloa. Their god-king, the being Namaka’s people worshipped as the god of magic.

  She dashed around halls, choking, gasping, her blurry vision only just beginning to clear. The Urchin had tried to show her this and she had misunderstood. So badly misunderstood everything. It had shown her the he‘e and the danger they represented. But she had missed it all.

  And what had it shown Nyi Rara? Would the mermaid ever tell her? The conspicuous silence in her mind might well mean the mermaid had also missed the point of her own visions.

  Namaka broke into the gorge chamber only to find four dead mer and as many dead he‘e. They had come here, and the mer had given their lives to stop them. But had they succeeded? She darted into the chasm. The bioluminescent algae had changed in hue from green to red, as if somehow reflecting the violence now permeating this once glorious city, this sacred place.

  Hurry, Namaka.