by Michelle Fox
I'd fallen right into it and it had tossed me onto the beach.
Pushing myself into the water, I swam out and oriented myself using the sun's position. That told me where home was, but I had no idea how to find Siya. My stomach tight, I went back to the island where we'd dug up clams.
Nothing.
I swam the route we'd followed the day before.
Nothing.
I sang her name, louder and louder until my voice gave out. If my music found her, I would feel it and could use it like a rope to reel her in.
No response. My song made no contact.
Not knowing what else to do, I returned home. If Siya had escaped, she would be there. I snuck in the back way so no one would see me. The last thing I needed was trouble with Kark.
Our nook stood empty.
The same desperation I'd felt when our parents hadn't returned clawed at my stomach. Biting my lip to keep it from shaking, I darted through the network of coral caves my ancestors had created. My tail and arms trembled, making my swimming strokes erratic. I bounced off the coral, wincing when its edges pricked my flesh, sharp as the truth I didn't want to face.
My sister was gone.
Which meant I was alone.
My world had died. Again. I didn't think I would survive it this time.
And then things got worse. The sound of my name came to my ears. The song stretched, indicating some distance, but there was no mistaking it was me they called. Turning back, I squinted trying to make out who it was. Mer can see almost anything underwater, but only when it's close by. The sea became murky with distance, which obscured our view. The narrow tunnels of the coral caves didn't help, either. They twisted in narrow loops and even Mer can't see around curves.
Whoever it was continued to say my name, the sounds growing closer and closer together as they came near. It was a deep baritone and as my name became clearer, I recognized who it was.
I tried to swim away and even managed a small song to stir a current to boost my swimming speed, but it was too late.
Kark caught up to me, his bigger tail covering distance twice as fast as I could. He barreled into me and grabbed me around the waist with his thick arms.
"Where have you been, Mila?" His dark gaze probed mine as he turned me to face him.
"Nowhere." I pushed against his arms, trying to shake myself loose.
"Where's Siya? I've been calling for her all day. " He peered into the tunnel ahead of us, searching for my sister. "It's almost time for the mating ceremony."
"She's..." I couldn't say it. That would make it real.
"What is it? Tell me."
I closed my eyes, feeling weak. "Two-legs. They took her."
"What?" His voice bellowed through the sea so loud it swirled its own current. "How?"
"There was a net. I tried to cut her loose. I couldn't."
"The northern tribe is expecting to see a mating ceremony in just a few waves time and I don't have a mate to offer them." His dark eyes searched my face. "What do you suggest I do?"
"Go after her. Save her."
He snorted, water bubbling across his face. "It's too dangerous."
"I'll go then," I said.
His grip tightened on me. "I don't think so. You have more important things to do." He hustled me down the coral tunnel toward the large gathering room.
"What are you doing? What's more important than Siya?"
"Your sister is gone. You can't save her."
I smacked him with my tail, hard enough that he grunted at the impact. "Yes. I can. Just let me go."
"I can't. They'll take you, too and where will that leave us?"
"You'll be here, nice and safe like always," I said, my voice bitter. "What do you care about what happens to me anyway? You don't care about Siya. You didn't care about Ndia. Our people disappear and you do nothing. My father—"
"Is dead because he wasn't careful," he said, his face grim. "And someone has to mate Qitu."
I went still in shock as his words hit me. "No. You wouldn't."
"It will take some arranging, but I think they'll agree to take you instead."
Kark's words stunned me into silence for a moment. "I'm not mating Qitu, and when I do find my sister, she won't be mating him either. You'll have to find someone else. Perhaps your own daughter."
His jaw clenched. "My daughter is not mating anyone from a northern tribe."
"So Qitu is good enough for Siya and me, but not Tili?" I laughed. "I hate to ruin your plans to get rid of us. I know you've hated us all these years, but neither of us is mating Qitu. I'm going to find my sister."
"You will do your duty by your tribe." Kark's voice roared through the water.
"Yes, I will." I went limp in his arms, preparing for my escape. Closing my eyes, I called forth the war songs my father had taught me as a child.
Opening my mouth, I sang a punch of sound at Kark's face. His head snapped back and his eyes widened with surprise.
"I will do what you will not."
I let another punch pour out, not wanting to give him time to recover. This one stunned him and his arms fell away from me.
Spinning around behind him, I sang the strongest current I could muster and pushed him away from me. When I couldn't see him anymore, I put the current at my back and swam as if my life depended on it. Which it might if Kark caught up to me again.
***
I left the coral caves and swam hard in a random direction. I had no place to go. Siya was outside the range of my song. The storm had allowed too much distance to pass between us and now I needed at least that much distance from Kark. If he found me, I would be forced into a mating I didn't want and there would be no chance of finding my sister.
The sea streamed by in hues of midnight. The sun had set on my sister's mating day. All my earlier worries had been naive. I would take a thousand Qitus over the two-legs.
Too tired to continue, I pulled myself up onto the beach of a deserted island and considered my options while the sun warmed my skin. I couldn't go back home and didn't have legs to follow my sister into the two legs' world. If I couldn't find a way to change those facts, I would never see Siya again. Not unless she escaped.
That last thought reminded me."Ndiya." I smiled at the name. She'd come back. She'd survived. She could help me.
But she wouldn't be enough. She'd almost died getting way from the two legs and had never been the same. I needed something that would give me an edge. Not to mention, talking to her meant going back home. Not the best place for me to be just then.
Flicking my tail in the waves that lapped the shore, I hugged myself and thought back to the songs my father had taught me. Magic used to run wild in the world but the Mer had set it aside wanting the two legs to forget. My ancestors would sometimes be captured by crews who would tie Mer to their boat masts and force them to sing for safe seas. Or they would be bound in nets and dropped into the sea to hunt for treasure.
We'd gone silent and stayed in shadows, waiting until the two legs forgot we were real.
But my father had held on to the songs and taught them to us just in case. One in particular came to mind.
The Sea Witch Call.
In Ariel's time, the sea witch swam freely through the oceans, her awareness like an octopus with legions of tentacles. One for every drop of water, my father had said.
"You've seen her?" I'd asked.
He shook his head. "No. But my father's father did."
"What was she like?"
"She's dark and dangerous," my mother had said, frowning at Father with disapproval.
"All power is dark and dangerous," he'd said. "If you let it be."
"This isn't appropriate for little tails." My mother made to shoo us out of the large cave my father used as a meeting room.
"Merla. Stop." My father held up his hand and let authority boom in his voice. "It is our history. They should know it."
Mother glared at him. "The witch never did us any favors, Eidu."
"Becau
se Ariel asked for the wrong things." Father snorted. "Legs. Of all things. What a waste."
"What should Ariel have asked for?" I'd asked, curious. The stories about the sea witch had always fascinated me. She stretched her tentacles around the middle of the world binding the warm and cold seas together. Her magic could do anything, but only if you were wise enough to ask for the right thing.
"To be happy where she was," Mother said. "Or to bring her prince here. Give him a tail instead of legs."
"None of those." Father made a slashing motion with his hand. "The sea witch isn't for wishes. She's the power of the sea and you don't ask that kind of power to care about one raindrop. You ask her to save what matters most."
"And what's that?"
"The ocean and those who call it home. Nothing less." Father leaned toward me. "That is why she gave us a song to summon her. Ariel abused it and the witch did not answer us for a long time as a result."
"Would she answer you, Father?"
"I hope so. But we are fortunate to live in a prosperous sea. We have not needed her."
"And if we did?" I asked.
He tapped his head. "I have the song up here."
"Teach me."
"No. Absolutely not," my mother said, flicking her tail in annoyance.
Father gave her a calm look. "Someone needs to remember what we were. Why not our little tails?"
"It's forbidden, Eidu. All the tribes agreed—"
"I did not sign that accord. Neither did my father or his father. The old magic is still locked up, safe and sound." He tapped his temple again.
"Let it go. We don't need it."
"No, we don't, but someday that may change." He beckoned for me to come closer.
"Eidu, please." A note of distress vibrated in my mother's voice.
He ignored her, focusing on us instead. "These are the secrets of the Mer and you must guard them with your lives. Do you understand my little tails?"
Our eyes wide, both Siya and I nodded.
Father gathered us close with his strong arms and carefully whispered the notes in our ears. Sharp discordant music cast a chill down my spine and even at low volume the song made my chest thump as if something had just punched my heart.
"That doesn't sound good," I'd said.
"Power never does. Promise me you'll never use that song. If you think it was bad, the witch is much worse."
I nodded. "I promise."
"But what if we need the witch?" Siya asked. "What if something happens?"
"So long as we are quiet and careful, we'll never need the witch," he said.
Mother wagged a finger at us."If I catch either of you humming so much as one note of that, you will be stuck in your rooms for a moon cycle." Looking at father, she said, "Eidu, this is ridiculous. They're too young for this. You've got to stop teaching them the forbidden songs."
"Who we are—our history, our sacrifice—is not forbidden. Someone should know these songs." Father hugged us close. "My father chose me out of all his little tails and now I choose you two as the next guardians of our magic. Don't ever forget them and keep your promise."
With a sigh, I came back to the present and looked up toward the moon. I hadn't forgotten any of the notes, but the time for keeping promises had passed. For the first time in generations, a Mermaid would call the sea witch.
***
Song magic wasn't just the sound. You didn't hear it, you felt it and it could spread out and act in ways that normal sound could not. All my life, I'd sung nothing more than lures and lullabies— light, easy magic that skipped into the world with little effort, but the sea witch song took more strength. It filled my stomach and spread up to my chest to thicken in my throat. I had to heave to get it out, the weight of it like a sinking stone.
Father hadn't explained how much strength it would take to use the forbidden songs. Digging my hands into the sand and planting my tail as deep as it would go, I pushed the sea witch call out with everything I had. The notes boomed like dark little storms as they skipped over the ocean's surface.
The moon moved from the top of my head to shine on the side of my arm and still I sang. Nothing happened, but I refused to quit. The sea witch would hear me. I wouldn't allow anything else. I'd been too young to save my parents, but I wouldn't let Siya go without giving it everything I had.
The moon spun its way down to the horizon and dawn rose to gild the night, but still the witch did not answer. I added to my song. In between the sea witch's call, I sang a plea. "Please. My sister. My tribe. Help me save them." I was no foolish Ariel, falling in love with a useless two-leg. My intent was pure. I sang because it was life and death.
As the sun flew higher and higher in the sky, I began to give up hope. She hadn't answered us in generations. Perhaps she'd gone back to fairy and I'd been singing to nothing all this time.
With a sob, I collapsed onto the beach, sand grinding into my cheek. Grief clutched at my heart, trying to rip it open. I put a hand over my chest and wiped away tears with the other. The most ancient myths said the sea was made up of mermaid tears and I added mine, wishing for a tsunami to wipe all the pain away. Once again, I could do nothing as I lost my family.
The water had to poke at my fin several times before I realized it wasn't just a wave. Lifting my head, I looked at the sea. The remnants of my song danced in the wind, growing louder instead of fainter. My song was coming back to me, surging into a roar.
Wary I snatched my tail out of the water only for it to reach up and grab me. Winding its way around my fins, the sea yanked me through the shallows and into the blue deep.
I screamed and thrashed my tail, trying to escape, but couldn't dislodge whatever had captured me.
"Be still," said a booming voice. "I am the Titan. I have come."
I craned my neck, looking for who or what the voice came from. This far down, though, the sea was empty...except for the force pulling me along as if I was a fish on the hook.
My song had apparently disturbed something.
"Titan who?" I doubted my question would be heard. The speed I was moving at would garble my words beyond recognition, but I tried anyway.
"I am your witch," came the answer. "The one you called."
***
The witch dragged me for many waves, not just across the sea but down into its blackest waters, where I could see nothing but the faint glow of jelly fish. My gills strained against the pressure squeezing my body and my lungs burned, but the witch didn't notice or care. It passed from day to night and back to day again as she took me
Eventually we moved straight up into the blue layers of the sea and then up again to the light green top layer illuminated by a mid-morning sun. With a heave, I was tossed into the sky and onto a beach. Sand crunched as I landed, making a big dent in the ground under my weight. Sitting up, I spit out the bits of beach that had found their way into my mouth...a lot of sand and some dried out seaweed.
The water churned and rose in an odd pattern, one I hadn't seen before. The sea was a strange world, full of liquid surprises; rogue waves, rip tides, tsunamis, whirlpools. Things shifted and changed, sometimes in unusual ways, but this was something new. The sea chopped and jostled against itself, sending opposing waves to slam into each other. A fast surge of water drove the level up, like a tide, but not a normal one. A wave rushed the shore and doused me up to my shoulders, the spray smacking my face, before I even realized I should move back.
Scuttling like a crab, I headed for higher ground, but when the water sucked back revealing the sea bed, I went still, shocked at what I saw next. The sea made a round bubble that rose up and up, making a soft slurping sound as it formed.
Black shadows filled it and thin threads of bright green light flickered inside. It grew bigger until I had to tilt my head back to see the top of it. The water came crashing down as dark tentacles pierced the bubble, shooting out through the liquid barrier into open air.
I scrambled back, racing to get out of the way as a small
tsunami headed straight for me. Reaching a palm tree, I wrapped my arms and tail around its trunk and held on, closing my eyes as the sea crashed over me and tried to suck me in. A true tsunami would have killed me, but this didn't have the strength or the force of nature gone wild. I was able to anchor myself to the tree and once the wave passed, I let go.
"Who called me?" boomed the voice.
Blinking water out of my eyes I turned in the direction of the sound and gasped at what I saw. The witch was a blob of black littered with clumps of seaweed and barnacles. Innumerable tentacles spun out from her center girth, some thick as trees, others thin as wisps of fog.
"Who called me?" She...did the witch even have a sex? I didn't know, but the voice grew louder.
"I-I did," I said. "It was me."
Every single tentacle went still and then shot toward me, streaking across and through the water in my direction. I backed up even further. My heart pounded in my chest. What had I done?
***
"I have not heard my song in a long time, " the witch crooned to me as her tentacles dragged me toward her bulging core. "You have a powerful voice. So pretty."
A small bump that served as her head, dipped down to look at me with green eyes. As she came closer, I realized her head was a coconut with holes gouged out for the eyes and mouth. Seaweed clumped on top of it, tumbling down in ragged strands to serve as hair while strips of coconut fiber hung off her face like a sparse beard.
I pushed at the tentacle that had grabbed me, ducking as thin tendrils reached out to poke me, running their tiny suckers over my face and body.
Perhaps it had been a mistake to seek her out.
"Why do you call?"
When I didn't answer right away she shook me. "Legs. I need legs."
Without a word she dropped me. Her tentacle went slack and I fell. The water hit me like a rock and I screamed as I broke through and slammed into the sea floor.
"Legs?" She roared the word and her tentacles thrashed in all directions, causing the sea to foam and froth.
Righting myself, I forced myself to ignore the stinging pain up and down my body and swim up to the surface. "Yes, legs." I screamed it all at her, letting my pain out that way.
"Feet never bring anything good. Silly. Foolish." She backed away from me, her tentacles folding themselves over the blob of her body.