Fire (The Mermaid Legacy - Book 2) (22 page)

The initial leap of fear as I watched him tumble through the water was quickly transformed to awe as he twisted with inhuman grace in a crouched and feral position, his face set in a mask of rage. I watched his chest heaving before straightening and grinning at Marinus.

“OK, Alexandra.” He turned to me. “Your turn.”

“My turn?” The word came out in a squeak as Marinus turned to me uncertainly.

“You’re just going to let him swim at me?”

Dad’s face was creased in concern, but he nodded ever so slightly.

I heard Marinus’s approach before I saw it. His whole body undulated, bubbles exploding around him as powerful muscles pulled and pushed the water away in a white froth of movement before it swirled away from him. The colour coming off him was a strange pumpkiny colour, mixed in with a curl or two of bluey-green doubt as he tried to force himself to attack me.

I tensed every muscle, bending my knees and twisting to the left while curling my body and snapping my feet in.

The slow motion movement of it ended with a whumpf as I swirled through the water, not seeing the mound of coral that seemed to appear out of nowhere and which grazed my elbow and hip as I brushed past it.

Marinus stopped where I’d been, looking around bewildered in the unnatural silence that followed the burst of activity.

Dad chuckled as he pulled me back to the centre of the circle.

“I don’t really know how you did that but it was pretty spectacular.”

“That’s not going to be available in other circumstances,” I whispered as I clutched at my bleeding elbow where I’d nicked it on the coral.

He was instantly serious and changed tactics by pairing us off to practise a series of defensive and offensively swirling movements, coaching me critically as I went.

The movements weren’t difficult but it was irritatingly obvious that my body was reacting by accessing various talents of speed and flexibility that obviously ran through my system. It was also obvious that my instincts were mostly defensive, and every time I swirled or leapt out of the reach of an opponent an uncomfortable squirm of doubt would worm deeper into my already cracking confidence, because I was very sure that I would need to attack in order to stop Neith, not just avoid being attacked.

“Let’s try Mizrak practice,” Dad suggested.

Having retrieved my Mizrak from where it was buried in the rock near my capsule I returned to the centre of the arena where one of the Oceanids who Takimu had been training was putting another group of Oceanids in a circle around him through their paces.

They stopped when I approached.

“I can’t find Takimu,” he told me, worry clear in his eyes.

“I’m sure he’ll turn up,” I replied, not wanting to discuss his whereabouts with the other Oceanids.

“We’ve looked for him and…” He listed the other six Oceanids that had gone with him, “everywhere, they’re gone.”

“Are they not out choosing more Mizraks?” Dad asked.

This seemed to placate the Oceanid although he still seemed worried.

“Could you teach me to fight like that?” I asked.

“Takimu is a better teacher, and better with the Mizrak too.”

“I kind of need to learn now, could I join in here?”

He nodded uncertainly and then continued with the sparring he’d been doing with the others.

I took my place on his left, holding the Mizrak awkwardly in its pearlescent sheath.

“That’s quite a monster you’ve got there.” The Oceanid grinned as he approached me, showing me how to attach the Mizrak to my back using strong thin cords of seaweed.

It was so long it extended way above my head and I found its weight made swimming harder – not exactly difficult, but it took more effort to balance, to move.

He showed me how to draw the Mizrak from its sheath and hold it ready for battle.

It was heavy and unhappy at being ‘woken’ and it spun in my hands, pulling constantly as it did so.

He approached me and I struggled to wield my Mizrak to block his blow. I’d just managed to get my Mizrak up when the strike from his Mizrak sent mine into a flurry of swirling as it tried to get away.

I hauled back on it, just in time to block a second blow, my arms aching from the effort.

It tried again to spin free but I hauled on it viciously, angry with it, angry and panicky as the thought of going into battle with Neith without a manageable Mizrak made my palms prickle.

My teacher started increasing the tempo of the training, coming at me faster and harder, and each time I only just managed to get my Mizrak up to block him.

He paused after a couple of minutes, obviously enjoying himself.

“OK, it’s your turn to attack me.”

I held the Mizrak with both hands, trying to pull it up and extend it from my body.

It was just too heavy and unwieldy and I allowed it to drift to the sea floor before sheathing it and asking for some rest.

I was floating near the council room when Pelagius swam over to me.

“I see you have made great strides in readying for the attack on Neith.”

I shrugged, every muscle in my body aching. “None of it will be worth anything if I can’t fight with this Mizrak, and I would have chosen the biggest one in the whole trench.”

“You need to relax more and allow those assigned to you to work on their own a little better.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, it is alive is it not? Let it guide you instead of you trying to control it the whole time.”

On my return to the arena instead of holding the Mizrak in a strangle hold I relaxed my grip very slightly and as I did so it began to spin with greater determination. My arms were so tired that I didn’t have the strength to resist it and it took advantage of my weakness by spinning faster and faster.

The Oceanids watching us laughed, some of them commenting that this was why so few Oceanids chose the longest Mizraks.

Still spinning I threw myself at my teacher, allowing the momentum of the Mizrak to swirl me in a huge arch over him and as I did so I flicked my wrist an infinitesimal amount right and left. The effect on the Mizrak was phenomenal. It zipped through the water, forcing him to falter backwards as he parried the blows ineffectually. More by mistake than anything else I released the Mizrak as he backed into an outcrop of rocks.

The weapon whirred through the water and buried itself into the rock precisely where his head had been a few seconds earlier.

The crowd around us was silent as he straightened, staring at me.

“Are youOK?” I whispered, sure my face reflected the same shock that was imprinted on his.

He nodded. “Can you do that again?”

I tried again and discovered that as long as I held just the tiniest amount of control I could wield the Mizrak relatively accurately. None of the other Oceanids were willing to practise with me though and even my teacher was very nervous.

That evening after dinner, Dad and I were asked about our experiences in the human world.

Dad explained how he’d been chased from the ocean and found his way to the mountain pod. He explained falling in love with Talita and then leaving that world to try to make a difference in the human world.

“Like many of you I hated humans until I met Gillian. I fell in love with her and her son Brent and we married and had Alexandra.”

“Why have you kept Alexandra from us for so long?” one of the council members asked.

Dad looked uncomfortable but answered anyway. “She is my child and I knew that if her identity was revealed all Oceandis would feel they had a claim on her and wheels would be put in motion to turn her into the warrior you all desire.”

The group was silent as they listened to him.

“I didn’t want this for her.”

“Alexandra, is this what you want?” one of the Oceanids asked, genuine curiosity in his voice.

“I would never have imagined myself in this position and I find it difficult to split the two halves of who I am. I believe in Oceanids and all you stand for, but I’ve also seen kindness and unity and great power in humans too. Being asked to choose between the two is the hardest thing for me.”

Aoi eventually sobered the meeting by telling them all that Takimu and six others had left with Cyan that morning. He gave no more details than that and allowed them to come up with their own conclusions, not wanting even those going into battle with us to know the full plan.“They will make all the wrong assumptions about him,” Dad told me quietly as we watched the pod absorb the news.

“Why do you say that?”

“Because they made those same assumptions about me.” He glanced at me, traces of bitterness in his eyes.

“After I managed to escape from Nasrin, I tried on numerous occasions to go back to the sea. Each time I went into the water I’d end up running again. Nasrin had told everyone that I was the traitor, that I had been pillaging the outlying pods. There was a reward for capturing me alive, a handsome one. Even previous friends turned on me until I was forced to swim upriver. That’s how I found the mountain pod.”

I hadn’t realised how much heartache Dad had been through.

“When we get back from the battle I will set the record straight for Takimu,” he said quietly.

Aoi moved over to us and spoke quietly.

“It is time we tell everyone of our plan..”

I gulped, the reality of the battle becoming that much clearer as I thought through how to explain the massive practice excercise I had in mind. It would be the first time that we would emulate battle, the first time all of the elements would come together and I was very nervous about it.

I closed my eyes and almost immediately an image of Merrick popped into my head. He was smiling and holding out his hand to me as he invited me to swim with him. The sunlight sparkled in his eyes and his mouth formed the words that had started me on this whole adventure in the first place.

Trust me
.

I opened my eyes and stood.

“We face difficult odds in attacking Neith,” I began. “We cannot go into this battle without understanding a little of what we will face.”

The Oceanids murmured amongst themselves.

“What I also need to remind you of is why we are fighting Neith. He has broken every Oceanid rule by forcing Oceanids to kill, by using other animals as pawns in his game of power. Worst of all, if we fail he will expose Oceanid existence to the humans which they will respond to unequivocally. The consequences if we fail are cataclysmic, both to humans and to Oceanids.

“Because he has such a strong army motivated by the potential harm he has threatened to do to their loved ones we have devised a battle plan that involves three layers of surprise. How these layers will pan out will only be decided in response to the battle ground but I do want to explain to you the layers we are going to use.

“First we will use the Zmija and some selected animals we have been working with. Neith has colossal squid that patrol Ferengren and can only be fought by other animals. Second, we will use Mizraks and the harpoons and arrows, and third we will use our talents, both individually and as a group. Finally we will use organisation to co-ordinate the attack so that we maintain control as best we can.”

The Oceanids were silent, their expressions sombre as they listened.

“If something happens to me...”

“Alexandra…” Dad protested quietly, but I shook my head, struggling to look into his eyes.

“If something happens to me, Zydrunas will take over command. Each leader has appointed a second in command to take over should they be…” I struggled to find the right word, “overcome.”

“When is this battle happening?” Azura asked, fear in her voice.

“Tomorrow we will hold a sort of dress rehearsal in which we will practise these elements,” I replied not answering her question.

Several other Oceanids asked about how we were going to get to Ferengren, who would be staying at The Haven and various other logistical questions. Dad, Aoi and I answered as many of them as we could.

“Remember, more than anything else, what it is we fight for,” Aoi said as he closed the meeting. “We fight for the freedom for innocence to flourish. That will never happen if Neith wins.”

The Oceanids slipped beneath the waves in pairings or on their own until only Aoi, Azura, Pelagius, Dad and I were left.

“When do we leave?” Aoi asked quietly.

“The day of the Full Moon Festival,” I replied. He nodded once, before he and Azura slipped beneath the waves.

When they had gone I sank onto my reed mat and buried my head in my hands.

“How am I going to do this?” I whispered, as much to myself as to Dad and Pelagius.

They were both quiet and when I looked up their expressions were grim.

“Alexandra, Defender of Men, you just have to do it one breath at a time. You cannot know how Neith will react or what he has set in motion and your fear will drive you to inaction if you follow this train of thought. Rather, my dear, rather look at each little action you must take in order to move forwards.”

“Pelagius is right, Alex, just think about what needs to be done next and get it done as well as you can, and right now, you need to rest,” Dad replied.

I slept fitfully that night, my anxious sleep pierced with Merrick’s anguished face telling me to turn back, to stay away from Ferengren…

The next morning I was full of energy and determination. I arrived at the arena as everyone was gathering, more than confident in their ability and ready to see how our battle plan could pan out.

I asked Mitra to organise the dress rehersal, having chosen to stay off her back so that I could be part of the discussion with Dad and Pelagius.

She obliged me. After ten minutes I wished she hadn’t.

The Zmija milled around the top of The Haven, creating a froth of bubbles before they dived down inside.

Mitra, what are they doing?

Practising

I raced into The Haven only to find them in a tangled mess near the arena, their great bodies churning the water into destructive waves ripping the capsules from their tentative hold on walls.

Mitra! Get them out of there!