Tides of Mana

by Matt Larkin

  After a long, shuddering breath, Namaka took the heart in her hands. It had already started to grow cold.

  “I love you,” she whispered to the dragon. From what she had seen in Pō, maybe the mo‘o was there now, watching her. Hearing her words. If so, she prayed the dragon could forgive her for ever refusing her lessons, for all the times she didn’t listen. For the anger that had blinded her for so many years, made her miss the moments of joy she should have treasured.

  Sometimes we must do difficult things to win the day. Nyi Rara had said that before Namaka entered Pō. And it was the truth, a hard truth she would never forget.

  Slowly, she lifted the heart to her mouth. And then she bit down.

  MAYBE, with Milolii’s mana pulsing through her, joined with Nyi Rara, Namaka could have overcome the taniwha on her own. She did not think it behooved any of them for her to take that chance.

  Part of her wanted to forgive her. Part of her wanted to hate her. She wasn’t certain how those two parts could exist side by side without destroying one another.

  Even if she wanted to release the rage … that did not mean she was ready to let the woman back into her heart.

  Still, she swam to Vai‘i, swam round until someone could tell her where to find her sister. Pele’s power might help her end the threat of the taniwha and the he‘e.

  She found the harbor—Puna they called this district—and climbed up onto the boardwalk.

  A heartbeat later, a fisherman on the boardwalk with her shrieked, suddenly wrapped by tentacle-like arms and tugged over the side.

  He‘e.

  The next instant, a dozen of the creatures were crawling over the side of the boardwalk, surprisingly fast even out of the water. They swarmed over the locals, wrapping them in crushing, strangling embraces.

  The locals got off a few thrown javelins, but those with the weapons seemed to be the first targets.

  That was … Hi‘iaka! Namaka’s little sister flung a javelin at an advancing he‘e. The creature jerked as part of its head splattered. Its arms kept dragging it forward, slithering over the deck like they had minds of their own. The creature was going to strangle her little sister, as they had tried to do to her. But Namaka had the strength of a mermaid—a human form would be crushed in moments.

  Namaka raced to her sister’s side, grabbed her, and leapt over the side of the boardwalk, transforming her legs back into a tail. Hi‘iaka’s eyes widened at the sight. Namaka wrapped her arms around her sister’s waist, dove deep, away from the shore.

  More he‘e swam down here, finishing the work the taniwha had begun.

  As she swam, she sent a current spiraling at one of the he‘e. The vortex knocked it away from the boardwalk and sent it skittering through the water before its rapidly pumping arms could arrest its momentum.

  Hi‘iaka beat against her back and she glanced at her, taking in the panic in her eyes, her cheeks looking like they were about to burst. The water felt charged with a powerful energy, like Hi‘iaka would blast apart. On instinct Namaka kissed her, blowing air into her mouth. She didn’t know how she was able to do it, but after flailing a moment more, Hi‘iaka relaxed, eyes widening again. Then her sister nodded at her.

  Namaka turned again to see another he‘e rapidly propelling itself toward her and Hi‘iaka. A wave of her arm sent a current jetting toward it, carrying it hundreds of feet away from her. She had to do something about those on the boardwalk, though, or all of Pele’s people would be dead.

  The surface was covered in the crawling, monstrous things, stuck to it with those awful suckers. And quickly making their way up to the buildings where they could wrap themselves around helpless men and women. She knew all too well the fear that evoked, the pain of being slowly crushed beneath far too many slimy, grasping, sucking arms.

  She blew another breath into Hi‘iaka then pushed the girl away and pointed to the surface. Her sister nodded and swam straight upward.

  Then Namaka summoned currents along the boardwalk, calling them to her. Namaka screamed, releasing all her rage and pent-up frustration along with the current. The water slapped against the wood with the force of a typhoon, shearing he‘e from it on all sides. Those that refused to break their suction had their arms severed by the current.

  The wood crunched and splintered into debris under her power, but Namaka felt the waters around the humans and forced them to recede, leaving the people kneeling on wet sand.

  In an instant, the waters darkened with blood and ink as the he‘e fled.

  Many of the locals lay unmoving, crushed to pulp. Their faces turned purple, arms twisted at unnatural angles, necks squeezed so tightly their heads seemed ready to pop free.

  Countless circular red sores covered them too, from where the he‘e suckers had latched onto flesh. Namaka grimaced, barely able to keep herself from retching at the gruesome destruction around her.

  “I hate the he‘e,” she mumbled, resuming her legs and treading back toward the land. The ground shook and a geyser of steam ripped through the exposed seabed, forcing her to leap backward before it scalded her skin off. “Stop!”

  “I’ll destroy you for this!” Pele roared, rushing down toward the beach. “I’ll roast the flesh from your bones! I’ll feed your soul to Pō!”

  An instant later, Hi‘iaka was there, between them, her arms thrown around Namaka. “She saved my life!”

  Pele drew up short, flames dancing between her hands and utterly engulfing her hair.

  Namaka couldn’t afford for this to turn into another fight. Surely, they had fought enough. “I know you grieve your losses. But the real enemy is still out there.”

  Pele’s eyes glazed over a moment, then she shook her head and blew out a long, deep breath, glowering at Namaka. Her kahuna, Lonomakua, made his way down to her and let a hand fall on her shoulder. At his touch, her fires went out, though Pele continued to glare.

  There was something odd about the kahuna. Some niggling in the back of her mind she’d never noticed before … But she could not place it.

  “The he‘e are our enemy,” Namaka said, forcing the feeling down. “They’ve sided with Hiyoya and turned a taniwha against these isles because they fear the two of us.”

  “As well they should.” Pele’s voice sounded far away, like she was half asleep.

  Namaka spread her hands. “So help me slay this dragon. You want to follow in Maui’s footsteps? Do as he did and put the people first. Kill the monster.”

  “You are changed.”

  Oh, she had no idea.

  “I cannot fight a monster beneath the sea,” Pele said. “Nor can I predict its attacks in time to be there.”

  “That’s where I come in,” Namaka said. “I’m going to bring it to you. And you’re going to bury it in lava.”

  34

  K amapua‘a stumbled out of the jungle, punching a tree trunk for good measure. And now his fist hurt. Stupid queens and stupid pig shit trees. An almost irresistible urge to take on boar form and run had overcome him.

  Not just boar form.

  No, the Boar God was trying to take him again.

  It was getting hard to separate its thoughts from his own. Thing kept getting stronger.

  So … strong.

  After waking up at the foot of the mountain—fall probably should have killed him but the Boar God wouldn’t let that happen—he’d wandered the jungle, hardly able to shape a thought. The Boar God had tried to use his body to … rape Pele. And Kama hadn’t done shit but watch and scream as it happened.

  It just kept happening, running through his mind over and over. Shitting eel writhing around in his stomach for days now. Was that guilt? Kama didn’t actually do any of that shit himself, so why did he feel shitting guilty?

  He’d come back down the mountain to find Tua dead and the man’s village burned.

  And now, here he was, walking through the ashes while his men turned this place into their new home. Rebuilding houses they themselves had burned down.

&
nbsp; Never bothered him before.

  Never really stuck around to see the aftermath, though.

  Malie, one of the only women on his crew, came up to him, hauling a board over her shoulders. She almost never bothered with a kihei, exposing the criss-cross of scars over her breasts because she figured it made her look more intimidating. Probably did.

  “You all right, boss?” she asked. “Ioane wanted to see you.”

  Kama shrugged and motioned for her to lead the way. Maybe all he needed was a good rut to lift his mood. The whole thing on Mauna Kea had gone so very wrong … he had to stop dwelling on it. “Did you see my muscles?” he asked while they walked.

  “Yes.”

  “Impressive, right?”

  “Yesterday you were in love with the Flame Queen. What happened? Now you want to impress me?”

  Kama grinned, though she didn’t look back to see it. “I always wanted to impress you, darling. And shit, Pele is glorious. I’m going to marry her one day. Maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day. We’re going to have lovely piglets together.”

  The woman scoffed. “And you think that queen wants piglets?”

  What a stupid question. Who didn’t want piglets? “I get it, I get it. Now you’re jealous. But I’m not married yet. So, if you really want a good romp, we can go out in the jungle tonight. Or a midnight surf if that’s your thing. Rutting on a surfboard takes practice, but it can be done.”

  Her shoulders suddenly tensed. Had he offended her? That happened every once in a while. People taking offense at his words for no obvious reason. People were weird. Always worrying about things you’re not supposed to say out loud and other such pig shit. Whole world would be better if everyone just admitted what they were thinking in the first place. If you wanted to sleep with someone you ought to be able to just say so. All this dancing about and ritual and courting all so you could pretend you weren’t going to do what came natural in the first place. Stupid human pig shit.

  “Let me ask you something,” he said just before they reached the center of town. “You ever think all this tabu stuff about courting and ‘do shit proper’ and so forth … ever think it’s only so you can make yourself feel better when you finally get a mate? Like you accomplished some great feat? Except, it only became a great feat because you made it ten times harder than it had to be. Ever see wild boars mate? Beforehand, what, you think he brings his sow flowers and sings to her and spends half a month wooing and shit?”

  “That’s what makes people better than boars.” She handed off the board to another man.

  “Well now, that’s just arrogant. Thinking you’re better than other people.” Nothing wrong with a boar. They were primal. Boars said what they really felt. Said it with feeling and tusks.

  Except, inside his gut, the Boar God stirred, as if Kama had just invited it up.

  It’s daylight. It couldn’t do it in daylight. It couldn’t.

  His gut seemed to disagree.

  Malie pointed up to where Ioane was working on what had been the chief’s house. He expected her to leave, but instead she followed Kama up to meet his second-in-command. Ioane noticed them, spit out a wad of black goop, and then plodded over to them.

  “Jungle give you answers?” the man asked.

  The jungle had given Kama bloody knuckles and only seemed to further rile up the Boar God. The pig had something fixed in his gaze and wouldn’t give it over now. Something bigger than killing Poli‘ahu.

  Oh, Kama knew what it wanted. Hence the eel in his stomach.

  He couldn’t give in. Couldn’t become what the god wanted to make him.

  “I was considering heading over to O’ahu. Make our fortunes there.” The Boar God squeezed his balls until Kama thought they would burst. All he could manage was a wheezing whimper.

  “You want to walk away?”

  “Uh, sail away.”

  “After the insult you said this Pele gave you? An insult to you is an insult to us all, boss.”

  True. And the Boar God would never let him run. Not from this. The god would pop his balls off, gnaw his insides, and in the end, beat whatever was left of Kamapua‘a into a pulp.

  He shook his head. “I’m going to take care of it. Quiet like a boar, middle of the night.”

  “Boar’s aren’t quiet. And—”

  Kama held up his hand. “Mighty Kamapua‘a has spoken.”

  “She’s made herself a queen down in Puna,” Malie said. “We’ve got to go down there and kill her. Unless she’s willing to submit to your … uh …” She giggled. “Authority.”

  Or both.

  It wasn’t a word so much as an emotion. Dark and animal. A vision of the woman bent over a rock as Kamapua‘a—no the Boar God—used her over and over. Maybe even ate her afterward.

  Shit.

  The sun was dropping low now.

  Kama held up a hand to forestall any more advice from Ioane or Malie. He’d had enough help from the two of them for the moment. He stumbled away from them, clutching his stomach as soon as he got out of view.

  He trudged along the beach, trying to steer clear as far from the ruined village as possible.

  It wasn’t a full moon tonight, but the god was still ripping its way out of him.

  So angry.

  So much rage.

  Kamapua‘a stumbled over a root, fell, and smacked his head on a stump at the jungle’s edge. Groaning, he rolled over onto his back. “You are not me. You are not me. You. Are. Shitting. Not. Me!”

  Of course it wasn’t.

  But he could feel it waking up.

  And it was getting harder and harder to put it back to sleep.

  One day—one day soon—Kamapua‘a would be the one lost in dream. He pitied the world when that day came.

  35

  N amaka glowered out over the sea, just after twilight. She knew where the taniwha was. The monster was coming back around the east side of Vai‘i. The sea spoke to her as never before and she could feel everything in it, for miles upon miles. Power coursed through her, more mana than she had ever come close to holding. It was temporary, of course. Her body could not contain such vast amounts of cosmic energy and it would bleed off, lost if not used soon.

  But Namaka intended to use it.

  She strode into the ocean, her face grim, surfboard under her arm. Such power had come with the most terrible price imaginable. Milolii should not have done this, should not have had to do this. Now, the only way left she had to honor her dragon was to kill this one.

  Pele had wanted to do this on the south shore, as close to Mount Kīlauea as the coastline allowed Namaka to bring the dragon.

  Rather than dive beneath the waves, Namaka mounted her board and used her power to jet her forward. She needed to be up here, where Pele could see her and ready herself for the dragon. Powerful as she was, Namaka wasn’t sure she could kill the taniwha without her sister. One hand forward, guiding her, the other jutting out behind her, her board leapt forward faster than she had ever ridden. She could not savor the feeling, could not enjoy the rush. Not this time.

  And it was nearing. It had probably destroyed many other coastal villages in the time she’d been away in Avaiki. She would make the dragon pay for that, too.

  Its massive presence disrupted the currents, made its own currents in violation of her waters. And she was going to put a stop to that. As its monstrous shadow passed beneath her, Namaka leapt off her board and dove beneath the waves, instantly assuming her tail.

  THE DRAGON PAID Nyi Rara no mind even as she approached, and she needed to use her water jets just to match its speed. It was coming around the island, back toward Puna. Maybe the he‘e had directed it to focus there, to focus on her people. To draw Pele out.

  They needn’t have bothered.

  But Nyi Rara needed it to follow her farther, past Puna, closer to the volcano.

  She swam up beside its eye, a mere handful of feet away. The orb had no iris, only an incandescent pupil like flowing magma. It watched her for a
n instant. Wondering if she was the prey it had been summoned for? Nyi Rara was going to make certain it knew the answer. She launched a lance of water right at the eye. The monster didn’t have time to blink before the spear-like pulse ripped through its lens. The eye exploded in a shower of gore and steam, blurring the water as though actual lava had lurked within the dragon.

  Its bellow of pain drowned out all other sound, deafening her and her ability to detect the movement of waters around herself. Screaming, Nyi Rara spiraled out of control, clutching her ears as she plummeted into the seabed.

  The dragon’s wild thrashing slammed it into a reef, pulverizing coral beneath it. It flailed a moment before focusing its remaining eye on her, radiating a palpable rage that left Nyi Rara feeling like a minnow before a shark. Her ears were ringing. Everything felt off. Despite it all, she launched another narrow pulse at the dragon.

  Now she had its attention. The pulse glanced off its head, barely slowing it. It sprang forward with speed and agility a creature of its size should never have managed. Nyi Rara launched a stream of water off to her side, flinging herself in the opposite direction just as the taniwha’s jaws crunched down on coral where she had been.

  Nyi Rara twisted around and took off swimming, but with her disrupted equilibrium, she collided with the reef, tearing a gash along her arm. She darted into a crevice, swimming as fast as she could, taking every hiding place. Instinct guided her every movement, told her exactly where she could fit. Instants after each turn the taniwha crashed into the space where she had been, obliterating the reef into nothing but a cloud of dust and debris floating in the waters.

  All right. So she’d succeeded in making it mad. Really mad. She shot another jet of water from her hands, propelling herself away with as much force as she could. Away, toward Kīlauea.

  She could be fairly certain the taniwha would follow her now.

  Water streamed behind her as she soared toward the surface. She spared a glance over her shoulder and was met with the rapidly approaching maw of the dragon. It could have swallowed her whole. Dozens of fangs lined its mouth in multiple rows, all hungering for her blood.