That left Fiora alone with the kraken.
The creature studied her with its enormous glowing eyes. Fiora glared back at it. Her hair and dress floated around her, making her look bigger than she actually was, but she was still tiny compared to the monster.
The kraken blinked, as if waking from a deep sleep, then leaned its enormous head forward. Fiora tensed, readying for an attack, but the kraken simply straightened back up and continued to stare at her.
Fiora blinked. Had the creature just bowed?
It seemed to be waiting for something. For her?
Fiora pulled water through her gills and began to sing. Not sure what else to do, she sang the song of healing. Her voice lilted through the water, and the kraken began to sway.
Was it dancing?
Fiora grinned and swam closer. The kraken swirled its tentacles around her in graceful, flowing motions. Fiora spun in the currents it created and poured more magic into her song. The dance continued, and the kraken spun her ever closer, guiding her with waving tentacles until she floated just in front of its enormous eye.
She stared into it, mesmerized by the warm glow. The kraken stared back, unblinking, and lowered its tentacles softly into the sand.
Then a deep rumble shook the ground, and the kraken’s eye narrowed. It shot out a tentacle and knocked Fiora away. Before she could recover from the impact, Leander’s scream rang through the water. He darted towards the surface with Althea close behind him.
The scream grew into a high-pitched song, and Althea flew away as a burst of magic hit her. Leander sang a different tune, and the underwater world began to spin.
The whirlpool caught Althea and pulled her further away from the merman. Fiora’s dress rippled in the current and wrapped around her as she tried to hold her position.
The kraken was too large to be pushed around so easily, but it was still agitated from the earthquake. Leander’s whirlpool pulled debris from the bottom of the ocean and flung it into the kraken’s eye. The creature shrieked in protest and waved its tentacles, trying to push the objects away.
Leander dodged and swam towards a bright spot on the ocean floor.
The mirror.
Althea dove after him, dodging tentacles and shards of glass as she sped towards the merman.
Fiora gathered her skirts and prepared to follow. Then the kraken reached a tentacle up towards the surface, and the loud crack of splintering wood rippled through the water.
The angry kraken had finally found something to lash out at.
Elspeth’s ship.
“Teuthida somnum statim!”
Fiora sang as loud as she could, trying to calm the kraken and put it to sleep.
The kraken blinked at her for a moment, then resumed its attack.
Fiora pushed the human qualities out of her voice and sang as a mermaid. Then she sang as a human. Then she mixed everything together.
She sang every song she knew, desperate to stop the rampage.
It did no good. Her unique magic was able to break the curse cast by Leander and Elspeth, but this attack was not the result of an enchantment. This was an angry creature lashing out at the first available target.
And she wasn’t strong enough to calm it.
The kraken slammed another tentacle into the ship. Broken wood flew out from the impact and floated on the waves, littering the ocean surface.
Fiora dodged the tentacles and swam up until she broke through the waves. The kraken had knocked a massive hole in the side of the ship, and water lapped hungrily at the gap. The vessel wouldn’t hold together much longer.
Fiora switched tactics and sang a song of movement, trying to create a current to pull the ship to safety. But Leander’s raging whirlpool held it in place.
Someone screamed.
Elspeth.
Deep laughter shook the water around Fiora. The kraken raised a single tentacle high into the air and brought it crashing down. The ship splintered down the middle. Both halves leaned against each other so the decks sloped steeply towards the center.
The kraken swiped another tentacle against the mast, snapping the wood and toppling it into the water.
Fiora gritted her teeth. If the kraken kept this up, it would turn the ship to kindling. She needed to save Gustave and his father before a stray tentacle smashed them into gravel.
And in spite of all her half-sister had done, she should probably save Elspeth as well.
Blast it all. She had been in Montaigne too long. Their tendency to help everyone had rubbed off on her.
70
Fiora dodged bits of wood as she worked her way towards the ship. A board snagged on her skirt, and she pulled it off, ripping the fabric in the process. The kraken smashed the ship again and sent debris flying towards her. Fiora dove below the surface and stayed underwater until she reached the ship.
What was left of the vessel tilted dangerously in the water. The sides sloped, steep and jagged and impossible to climb.
Fiora turned to the broken mast. It leaned into the water, creating a sort of ramp. She could climb it.
But not as a mermaid.
She untied the pearl ring from her hair and held it flat in her palm. The gem still shone with that strange mix of pearl and copper magic. Hopefully that meant Gustave was still alive somewhere underneath the stone.
Fiora flicked her tail as she studied the ring. She shouldn’t use it. She knew that. Loving a human man had killed her mother, and it might prove just as fatal for her if she attempted this rescue.
If the forbidden magic didn’t kill her, the enraged kraken would.
Blast it all.
Fiora slid the ring onto her finger and grabbed the mast. The pearl’s magic ran over her skin, splitting her tail and closing her gills.
While the transformation song had been agony, this magic simply felt warm, like sunlight on her skin.
Fiora gripped the mast tighter and kicked her legs as the transformation finished. Her voluminous gown dragged her towards the ocean. The elegant petticoats were now heavy and a very real hazard.
She dug her fingernails into the wood and pulled herself onto the mast. Her feet connected, and she wrapped her legs around it to stabilize her position.
Fiora clung to the mast and stared at the ship above her. She tried to pull herself up but gained only a few inches.
She would never reach Gustave in time at this rate. The wood was slick and full of splinters. The waterlogged evening gown weighed her down. Fiora tried to walk up the steep slope, but the skirt clung to her legs, wrapping them together until she might as well have been a mermaid.
With a silent apology to Dowager Queen Bernadine for ruining the gown, Fiora plucked at the intricate embroidery on the skirt’s seam until she pulled a thread loose. She unraveled the stitching, apologizing to the original seamstress as well. The skirt was stitched together beautifully.
Which just made it that much harder to take apart. This was taking too long.
Fiora changed tactics and found a nail sticking out of the wood. She stabbed the top three layers of fabric through the nail and let go of the mast, using her body weight to tear the skirt away as she fell. Then she climbed back up and repeated the process. Fiora shrugged out of the loose layers, peeled the wet fabric off her legs, and threw the skirt into the ocean.
She still wore a few petticoats, but removing the outer layers had reduced her weight considerably. Fiora pressed her feet into the wood, gripped the sides of the mast, and began to climb.
She had never been particularly athletic, but she felt strong and light now that the curse was lifted and she wasn’t in pain. The whole ship swayed and creaked as waves pushed against it. Fiora used the rhythm of the ocean to her advantage, pulling herself up in time with the sea. The kraken pummeled the ship again, and she wrapped her arms as far around the mast as she could to keep from falling into the water.
When the ship stopped shaking, she tucked her feet in and climbed again, ignoring the splinters that pier
ced her skin. When the next wave lifted the mast, Fiora jumped.
She hit the deck less gracefully than she would have liked. Most of her weight landed on her right ankle, which collapsed under her as she toppled to the floor. She stood, and it buckled underneath her.
Perfect. It seemed she was destined to have trouble walking wherever she went.
Fiora hopped across the deck, gritting her teeth as the motion jarred her injured ankle. The ship looked like it would sink at any moment, but a song still echoed from Elspeth’s cabin. A song Fiora meant to end as quickly as possible.
Elspeth looked surprised when Fiora burst into the cabin, but only for a moment. Then she winked and resumed her singing. Fiora hopped towards her, but another kraken blow rocked the ship and tilted the floor even further. Fiora stumbled backward and crashed into the statue of Gustave as her ankle gave way. She wrapped her arms around his waist to hold herself upright. The stone was solid and unyielding beneath her grip.
Elspeth grinned.
“You just can’t stay away from my husband, can you?”
“Shut your mouth.”
Fiora had thought recovering her voice would make her feel better, but words seemed completely inadequate at the moment. She just wanted to punch Elspeth in the face and be done with it.
Elspeth’s grin said she knew it. And that she also knew Fiora was injured and would fall over if she let go of Gustave.
“I don’t know what you’re so happy about. Your ship is sinking.”
Elspeth shrugged.
“It happens. I can still save you if you want. My friend is rather interested in you for some reason.”
“And to think I climbed up here to save you from the sinking ship and attacking kraken. Obviously I need your help instead.”
“Please. We both know you’re here for him.”
The ship shook as deep laughter rumbled through it. Loose boards rattled. It wouldn’t hold together much longer.
“Last chance,” Elspeth said. “Come with me?”
She held out her hand. Fiora glared at her.
“I don’t want anything to do with you.”
“Are you ready, song wench?” a deep voice said.
It came from nowhere and everywhere all at once. Fiora clung to Gustave as the floor beneath them rumbled and bits of ceiling fell around her.
“Yes, Nog, I’m ready.”
The hulking shadow appeared in the mirror, and a disgusting smell filled the room. Fiora could see the shape better now that it wasn’t hidden behind the statue. Whatever the creature was, it was enormous and powerfully built. Its horned head looked at Elspeth with an impatient expression.
“Last chance, Fiora.”
“Elspeth, what’s going on?”
Another kraken blow rocked the ship. King Francois toppled onto the bed, and Gustave slide across the deck as the floor tilted. Fiora tightened her grip on him, but it was a losing battle. Inch by inch, Gustave slid closer to the shattered window. He was too heavy for her to hold.
“Hurry up, human.”
Nog’s voice rattled the ship, and Fiora felt it vibrating through the stone as she tried to hold Gustave in place.
A clawed hand reached through the mirror and rested on Elspeth’s shoulder. Fiora gagged as the stench grew stronger.
“Get your hands off me. I’m coming.”
Elspeth winked at Fiora and stepped into the mirror. It rippled like water as she passed through it, then hardened back into a smooth surface.
The stench disappeared as Elspeth and Nog walked into the distance and out of view. The mirror shimmered a little, then stilled until it once again reflected the room.
Before Fiora could do anything more than blink in surprise, a kraken tentacle crashed through the cabin walls. It swept away the ceiling and knocked the mirror into King Francois. The mirror cracked in half from the impact and toppled into the ocean.
Then another tentacle took out the bottom of the ship, and the floor fell out from under them. The statues landed in the ocean with an enormous splash and disappeared beneath the surface.
Fiora toppled after them. She landed in the ocean and gagged as she swallowed salt water. She gasped in surprise and swallowed even more. Her lungs screamed for air, but what was left of the skirt tangled around her legs and kept her from swimming back to the surface. Panic filled her chest.
Fiora pulled the ring off her finger. A gentle warmth swept over her skin, and Fiora was a mermaid again. She sputtered and took a few deep breaths through her gills. Then she tied the ring into her hair and searched the water for the statues.
They had disappeared into the depths, the stone sinking far faster than she did. The first rays of the rising sun tinted everything red. Fiora swam down, blinking as her eyes adjusted to the dim light of the underwater world.
There.
Leander’s whirlpool still raged, and it was pulling the statues towards the kraken. The creature waved its tentacles, searching for a new target to lash out at since it had destroyed the ship.
Its enormous eye saw the falling statues and narrowed in anger. It pulled its tentacles back, preparing to attack.
Fiora let out a burst of song and dove towards Gustave.
71
There was a voice.
Her voice.
A kraken had attacked, and Gustave was sinking in the ocean again. This all felt strangely familiar.
But this time he couldn’t move, and she was the one in danger.
Blast it all. How could he save her if he couldn’t move?
Gustave struggled against the numbness that held him prisoner, but her voice faded into silence before he could break free.
72
The kraken swiped at Fiora as she swam. She dodged, but the fabric of her dress dragged in the water and slowed her down. The tentacle connected with her tail and sent her tumbling through the ocean. Fiora reached behind her as she floated, pulling at the buttons on the back of the gown.
She needed her full speed to save Gustave, and this gown was getting in the way.
“I’ve always found human clothing to be overly complicated.”
Fiora whirled around and found Madame Isla floating behind her. The mermaid smiled.
“Fortunately, I’ve made a study of it. My research on buttons alone has-”
The kraken swiped at them again, forcing both mermaids to retreat.
“Just get me out of this,” Fiora said.
She pulled her hair up so the mermaid could access the back of the dress. True to her word, Madame Isla was quite capable at unfastening buttons. Fiora wondered if she had practiced on sunken gowns as part of her research.
As soon as the bodice loosened, Fiora wriggled out of the gown and dove towards the kraken. Madame Isla dove after her.
“Fiora, what are you doing?”
“I have to save them!”
Fiora swam towards the statues, which had landed beside the kraken. They were out of the creature’s sight, but still in danger of being smashed by tentacles.
“Fiora, those are statues!”
Before Fiora could explain, the kraken roared and lunged at them. Madame Isla let out a single high note that pierced the water. It seemed to surprise the kraken more than anything.
“Sing with me,” Madame Isla signed.
Fiora pulled water through her gills and matched Madame Isla’s pitch. It was aggressive. An attack rather than a lullaby.
And it worked. The kraken pulled its tentacles back, giving Fiora space to dive towards Gustave.
The water pulsed with blue light, and a soothing song filled the air. Fiora shared a glance with Madame Isla and quickly changed her song to join the choir.
“Teuthida somnum statim.”
The kraken’s eyes began to close. It slumped to the ground and lowered its tentacles. The light grew brighter, silhouetting a group of merfolk swimming over the horizon.
Help had arrived.
Then the ground shook with deep laughter, and the kraken blink
ed. Fiora searched the ocean floor for the source of the sound and saw a pale reflection of the blue light glistening in the sand. A shadow hovered over it.
Leander and the mirror.
It was cracked, but that only made the glass look more sinister as it reflected the light of the Kraken Heart.
“Did your research include magic mirrors, Madame Isla?”
“Mirrors can contain magic?”
Apparently not.
“We need to destroy that one.”
Fiora swam towards Leander with more anger than a plan. The merman grinned when he saw her.
“I already defeated your sisters. What can you possibly do, little mermaid?”
Fiora had no idea, but she didn’t slow down. Leander and Elspeth had endangered everyone she loved, and she wouldn’t let them get away with it. Elspeth may have escaped, but Leander was still within reach.
Leander’s smug smile slipped as the blue light grew brighter. Fiora didn’t look back. She didn’t need to. She saw the approaching mermaids reflected in the mirror.
Althea and Kathelin swam at the front of the choir. Zoe carried the Kraken Heart and looked fully prepared to use it.
“Teuthida somnum statim.”
The Kraken Heart pulsed in time with the music, and the kraken’s eye closed again. The merfolk sang a final chord and sustained it until the kraken fell asleep and crashed into the ocean floor. The ground shook, and the statues of Gustave and Francois slid across the sand towards Fiora.
Leander scowled and stopped singing.
“I guess that’s my cue to leave.”
“You’re giving up so easily, fish boy?”
The deep voice echoed from the mirror and shook the ground.
“Do you want to come out here and fight an entire civilization?”
“At least finish her off first.”
Leander turned back to Fiora. He screamed, and his eyes glowed yellow. Half of the broken mirror lifted off the sand and flew towards her.
Fiora countered with her own song, deflecting the mirror so it sliced open her tail instead of her neck. She screamed in pain. The mirror shuddered and turned black as her blood spilled over it.
Princess of Mermaids Page 37