Fire (The Mermaid Legacy - Book 2) (21 page)

“You’re going to win this thing, Alexandra, and in doing so you will live up to your name as the Defender of Men.”

I shook my head. “What if we don’t, Pelagius? What if I’m not strong enough, what if we’re not strong enough… So many lives rest in my hands and I don’t know if I’m brave enough to throw them into danger like this. Just sending those Oceanids out to Neith, I can’t think straight I’m so worried.”

He smiled at me. “Alexandra, that just proves you are ready to do this. If you are thinking about the Oceanids and the danger they are in now, then it shows you
are
ready to lead them into battle because you will keep them as safe as you can, you will lead them well. Remember, even if we don’t attack Neith the fight will come here, maybe not immediately but eventually it will and when it does, then The Haven will fall because we will all be too weak to stop him.”

I returned to the arena ready for the most critical part of our plan. I needed to teach them to share talents with me. As I organised the Oceanids into the groups we’d been working with I wondered how many of them would be coming home after the battle. The thought made me more determined than ever to help them.

They formed a circle standing just beyond arm’s reach of the person on either side. After we had stated our names and talents Dad asked everyone in turn how they expected to react when attacked. The responses ranged from hiding to vicious combat, and in my case the use of the myriad of talents I had at my fingertips.

Dad listened patiently to each description before speaking.

“You have all stated a reaction they will expect, an individual use of the powerful talents you have been blessed with at birth. Unfortunately that will not be enough to save you or keep Alexandra safe and
that
, my friends, is
the most
important part of this mission.”

A flame of embarrassment lit my cheeks as he continued.

“If they get hold of Alexandra we
will
lose.”

“Dad, that’s not true,” I interrupted him, blushing at the embarrassed expressions of those around me as I argued with him.

Khazhak interrupted me. “It is true, Alexandra. You do not know yet how they plan to change you to join them, Zydrunas is right in keeping you from that test. We will surprise them by using multiple talents in waves.” He nodded to me.

“Each word I have taught you is also associated with a specific talent.” I went through the list carefully explaining how, when the word was communicated, they should react.

“I will decide the combination only when we are in the thick of battle,” I told them, “that way we can ensure complete surprise. What I need from you is immediate and unquestioning action.”

They nodded, their faces open and trusting and more terrifying than I could have imagined possible. I held their lives in my trembling inexperienced hands and worst of all was their complete willingness to place that much trust in me.

“What I want you to get used to today is accessing and sharing each other’s talents through Alexandra,” Dad said and then called me into the centre of the group, taking my place in the circle and encouraging all of them to crowd around me and touch an exposed piece of my skin.

At first nothing happened and then one of them, a muscular woman with the stance of royalty, began to giggle. I turned and watched her skin change colour until she disappeared. Another Oceanid, on the other side of the circle was watching her too and grinning from ear to ear before opening his mouth and emitting a piercing shriek so sudden and loud that I ducked. It was answered by a dozen bellows from the Zmija outside of The Haven.

The others experimented excitedly with the talents they could now share, laughing and chatting to each other as they did so.

“OK, now each of you, one by one, release Alexandra but maintain the talent.”

Their faces creased in effort as they tried to hold onto the shared talents without using me as a conduit. Most of them failed but a few of them could carry on using the talents for a few minutes at most.

Sunil, an ebony-skinned giant of a man bent double, his hands on his knees panting with effort as he continued to whisper the thoughts of the Oceanid beside him, while a different Oceanid who had the talent of thought reading, confirmed what he was saying with encouraging murmurs and nods of his head. He was able to hold the talent for only five minutes.

“Now that you know what it feels like, the shape of it, I want you to try again,” Dad instructed them, “but this time,” he turned to me, “I want you to actively share with them.”

The group gathered around me again as I closed my eyes and tried to concentrate on sharing my talents. The problem was that they were almost completely intangible. The only way I’d been able to access them in the first place had been to completely relax and flow with Maya – the first person who had taught me anything useful when it came to accessing talents. After that I’d been able to force raw emotions into the action I wanted done and get a similar result. I had no idea how to even find them within myself, let alone actively share them.

Ten minutes later Dad called a stop to the process that was leaving the other Oceanids exhausted and me, immensely frustrated.

He didn’t say a word, but I knew him well enough to know that he was disappointed.

“Is this possible?” I whispered as he came to float beside me, worry twisting my stomach uncomfortably.

“Yes, I think so.”

“Then what am I doing wrong?”

“I think you’re trying too hard. Just imagine all of them doing what you can do.”

“Dad, we don’t have time to fiddle around, we need to get them up to speed with this.”

Dad smiled at me, his eyes tender. “Alexandra, may I ask you something?”

His question dampened my panic a little. “Yeah sure, why not.”

“Three weeks ago, if I had told you that you’d have swum across the ocean leading a huge pod of mythical creatures to war against incredible enemies to save the love of your life and humanity, what would you have said?”

I stared at my feet, scuffing the soft moccasin-like shoes that encased them in the powdery white sand beneath them.

“I would have committed you to a mental institution,” I replied, risking a peak and a cheeky grin at him.

He chuckled.

“Why do you believe I can share these talents, Dad?”

“Because you’ve been doing it subconsciously with me from the time you were a little girl.”

“What?”

He grinned. “I’ve been able to create ice, fire, speak to creatures in the water, run really fast, lift ridiculous weight, read minds…all of it when you were within sight of me.”

“That far?”

He grinned again and nodded. “Yup, that far, and you did it effortlessly. Just be aware of them,” Dad instructed.

I closed my eyes and relaxed, allowing my senses to range out from my body.

Oddly the first person I became acutely aware of was Dad. He was floating farthest from me, but I found my mind automatically slipping into a routine I hadn’t even been fully aware I did before.

I knew his orientation from me, how the environment could impact him and even what threats he was exposed to.

I opened my eyes when he began to chuckle, as he held out his palm to the group surrounding me and we watched in astounded fascination as a blue orb of energy sparkled in his hand.

“OK, let’s try it with just one person at a time instead of the whole group.”

I started with Khazhak, closing my eyes and finding him within my sensory range.

“Oh that is horrible,” Khazhak exclaimed.

“What do you mean?” I asked opening my eyes in time to see Dad tug on his long braided hair, muttering something under his breath at him.

“Oh er…nothing.”

“Try again,” Dad encouraged me as I searched Khazhak’s thoughts quickly, catching only a passing squirmy feeling he’d had a few moments earlier.

Dad instructed him to whirl in the water as if he had a Mizrak to see if that would alter my ability to find him. It didn’t at all but I also didn’t seem to have the same effect on him.

“Why can’t he share my talents?” I asked Dad, bewildered.

“Sharing is a two-way process,” Dad replied,. “He has to accept the talent as much as you have to give it.”

“So which part of the process is going wrong?”

Dad sighed and finned over to me, placing his hand on my shoulder as he addressed the group. “In order for you to take the talent Alexandra is giving you, you have to be vulnerable to her, that is what Khazhak is struggling with. Right now he is battling his survival instincts, battling to relax enough to take what she is offering. It will be like that with most of you, but only you can overcome the natural fear of vulnerability.”

He turned and pointed at another Oceanid. “Let’s see if you can do it.”

We practised for another half an hour with the group as my strength faded with each attempt.

Dad then gave them a series of physical movements to practise, a flurry of jabs and aggressive swirls that left me in no doubt that they were offensive fighting techniques.

“Let’s go on to the next group,” he suggested, “these ones need to rest.”

We neared the next grouping of Oceanids, greeting an exuberant Sabrina and the others I knew by name.

Dad quickly explained the process of sharing talents and we demonstrated how easy it should be.Surprisingly Sabrina mastered it within a few minutes and in doing so I could more accurately verbalise the role she had played in accepting the talent. This helped me talk the other Oceanids through the process and within half an hour they were all using talents they hadn’t been born with.

Dad showed them a series of attacking exercises to practise before we moved on.

I had been thinking about his reasons for not wanting me to be in hand-to-hand combat, an uncomfortable reality squirming through his assurances that I was talented enough to protect myself. This, I had fully realised was very true: any Oceanid, or even group of Oceanids that came at me would have a lot to contend with except in one set of circumstances.

Dad and I stopped farther up the volcano walls to snack on some shellfish.

“Dad,” I approached the topic carefully, “I know why you are worried about me fighting hand-to-hand. It’s dangerous, but there’s a good chance I will be fighting Neith like that.”

“Why?”

“Neith used a net to incapacitate me in Ferengren. My talents were useless to me.”

“A net?” He was surprised.

I nodded, explaining how they had deciphered my weakness and how completely helpless I was within the net.

An angry hiss, so Oceanid in temperament and sound that it caught me by surprise hearing it from him, escaped from his teeth.

“I don’t want to be completely at Neith’s mercy ever again and if he…” I didn’t finish the sentence because the consequences for the rest of the pod if I were caught were too vast to contemplate.

Dad went very quiet, his eyebrows creased in concern.

“Maybe you were too afraid to access your talents properly,” he replied eventually.

I shook my head. “I’ve been thinking about it since it happened and at certain points throughout the experience I was calmer than I’ve been before.”

“What do you think it was then?”

“I don’t know for sure, but I think that I lost them…that’s the wrong word…they became powerless or inaccessible to me when I was in the net.”

“Does anyone else in this pod know about this?”

I shrugged, “Only Pelagius.”

A shout from the group waiting for us allowed him the time I knew he needed to think, as he swam in silence over to them.

We trained the next group easily, both of us using the knowledge we’d garnered from the previous two to explain and prepare the Oceanids for the experience of sharing talents with me. While I was working with them I noticed him discussing something with Muirgel, his expression growing more and more worried as they spoke.

We left the group and had been swimming for a few minutes in the lush jungle of kelp at the top of the volcanic ridge when he stopped and pulled me into a quick and slightly awkward hug before placing his hands on my shoulders as we floated high above the other Oceanids on the sea floor.

“Muirgel has confirmed from the legend that you will have certain weaknesses that will negate your power. The legend is frustratingly vague.” He shook his head, his eyes darting angrily as he spoke. “But I guess being over-prepared is not a bad thing.”

“So you’ll teach me to fight?”

He nodded, but ducked his head so that he could look directly into my eyes. “On one condition.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, waiting.

“That you will only go into one-on-one combat if
all
other avenues of attack have been exhausted.”

I thought through what he was asking, realising that now that he’d agreed to teach me I would have to face the potential horror of killing another sentient creature up close and personal.

I tried to imagine my reactions to the type of situation where I would need to kill – I winced mentally at the image that thought evoked, struggling to replace the fear with the determination to do
whatever
it took to keep out of Neith’s clutching ambitions.

And then an image of Merrick would flip into my thoughts, and whether it was a happy image or a nightmarish one, a rage so black and deep it scared me, would bubble to the surface and I knew I’d do
anything
to free him.

The next grouping of Oceanids was comprised of mostly men. I only knew Marinus personally and he stood, his feet buried in the powdery white sand, towering above me, thick with muscle and the scars that laced his half naked torso, a vivid reminder of the pain we could all be exposed to in the coming days.

Once we’d taught them all to share my talents Dad stepped into the middle of the circle and announced that we would be spending the rest of the day with that group.

Without warning, he charged straight at Marinus, taking the big man by surprise and throwing him to the sand in two deft movements. He had him pinned into the soft sand and was discussing what he’d done when Marinus shifted his weight fractionally and hurled Dad away from him.