The Elemental Trial

by Claire Luana

  Below us, Tristam and Sophia were already swimming into the smoky depths. They glided with grace, swishing their tails in unison until they were nearly out of sight.

  “We'd better catch up, or we'll lose them,” I said, gurgling each word.

  But it was clear that it wasn't going to be easy. Without tails, we couldn't cut through the water the way the others did, and every stroke was an effort, as I had to concentrate on breathing as well as swimming.

  Orin was having no better time of it than I was, and when I looked over to him, I saw his lips were turning blue.

  “This isn't worth it,” I said, my words creating bubbles that lazily floated to the surface. If we weren't careful, we were going to die down here. I didn't want to be out of the race, but there was no way the FFR bosses would let us continue, impaired the way we were. I tapped Orin on the shoulder and pointed upwards.

  When I crested the surface, my breathing went from a struggle to completely impossible. A pull on my leg had me going right back underwater.

  “Those pearls have closed your natural airway,” Orin said. “We’re stuck down here until the magic wears off.”

  “How long will that be?” I asked, trying not to panic at the thought of it. I didn't have many fears, but drowning above the water certainly qualified.

  Orin shrugged. “Just stay as calm as you can. If you panic, you’ll use more oxygen.” He pulled me into a hug and held me tightly until my near panic attack subsided. This was the closest we'd ever been to each other since our almost kiss the night before, and this time, our skintight clothes made it feel like we were both naked. I closed my eyes as Orin's strong pectorals pressed against my chest, and his arms wrapped around me, sheltering me from whatever horrors lay ahead.

  My body’s reaction to Orin’s closeness was undeniable. My pulse quickened, my breathing became deeper, and the desire to touch him under his wetsuit became unbearable. I could have stayed like this forever, locked together, a tangle of limbs, pretending we weren't in the middle of a stupid race. A stupid race that was rigged by the one hosting it.

  I took a deep breath...or a deep pull of oxygenated water, and this time, my senses cleared. Being this close to Orin had done the trick. When I opened my eyes, I saw Ben filming everything. I couldn’t bring myself to care. Whatever was going on in the outside world would have to wait. We’d need all of our focus here to make it through this leg.

  “Come on,” I said, pulling back from Orin. “We should catch up with the other two.”

  He seemed reluctant to let me go but nodded.

  We inverted our bodies and plunged into the darkness.

  21

  My muscles burned, and my body was completely numb by the time we reached Tristam and Sophia, who hovered near the sandy bottom. They were giggling and frolicking, flipping their fins about. I wished I had a trident to fork them with.

  “What took you so long?” Tristam asked.

  I glowered at him. “Our pearls were a bit different than yours.”

  Tristam nodded. “That’s right. The pearls were given out by order of how we finished the Sorcery Trial.”

  I frowned. “What do you mean?” I vaguely did remember the king mentioning something like that.

  “It was a reward for finishing further ahead. The first team got the most powerful pearls. You guys finished last, so…” Tristam trailed off. Roger that. Worst pearls.

  “Great,” Orin said, throwing up his hands. “So they stack the deck in favor of the winners.”

  “Don’t hate the player, hate the game,” Sophia said, watching how a lock of her hair floated before her in the water.

  I narrowed my eyes at her. I hated the player and the game. Though, I’m not sure that had the same ring to it.

  “You guys aren’t going to slow us down, are you?” Sophia asked. “Because we’ll leave you.”

  “You can’t,” I said. “We all need to finish together. Now let’s stop yapping and open the damn clam.” Tristam was still holding the clam that the oarsman had dropped on the deck. I’m sure it was the clue to where we were headed next. The end of the Elemental Trial. If we made it. My teeth were chattering, and my head felt faint from the dark and cold.

  Tristam and Sophia set to prying it open, and Orin approached me. “Come here, I want to try something.” I let myself float near him as he closed his eyes. He was doing some sort of magic.

  I felt the most delicious warmth cocoon me, and I audibly sighed in relief. “Ohmygawd, that’s amazing.”

  But he wasn’t done. I felt a tingling in my eyes and then it was like a little shield slid down over them, protecting them from the briny salt water. I could see more clearly through the murk, too, like I had a searchlight.

  Orin opened his eyes. “Okay, try to kick your feet.”

  I did as commanded and shot upwards. “Woah!” I hollered, backpedaling with my hands, which also seemed supercharged.

  “It’s good? It worked?” Orin asked.

  “I feel about a thousand times better,” I said, breathing a sigh of relief. It was still strange down here, but I didn’t feel like I was going to die of hypothermia anymore.

  “Okay, great, I’ll do the same to myself.” He closed his eyes again, performing the enchantments on himself. God bless that faerie’s magic.

  “Got it!” Tristam exclaimed.

  I shot to his side to inspect the pearlescent interior of the clam. It held a tiny, intricate model of a city.

  “It’s Elfame,” Tristam said. “Just across the bay.”

  Sophia and I looked at each other, and for once, I think we had the same thought. “What’s the catch?” she asked.

  “There’s an entire merfolk city between here and Elfame,” Orin answered, his jaw set in a hard line.

  “So?” I asked. “Let’s get going.”

  “The merfolk are not…friendly,” Tristam said. “They are intensely territorial, and just a step above savages. My father sent my brother once to renew a basic treaty, and he ended up a prisoner for a week.”

  That was the first time Tristam had ever mentioned his brother. From the stony look on his face, he didn’t like to.

  “So, we go around,” Sophia suggested.

  Tristam shook his head. “They control the entire waterway. We’d have to circle around much of the city to avoid them. It would add days to our journey.”

  “And this is a race,” Orin said. “We need to go through.”

  “It’ll be fine,” I offered, my words sounding unconvincing, even to myself. “We’ll just stay low, stick to the shadows. Go incognito.”

  “Incognito with two bright blinking personal submersibles following?”

  We all turned to look at Ben and the other cameraperson’s submersibles, floating a few yards away. Crap.

  “Anyone have any other ideas?” I asked.

  Silence. Tristam shook his head, running a hand through his golden locks. His face was pale, and I didn’t think it was just the cool water. “We’ll have to go through. But we stay close together. Move quietly. Don’t touch anything. And if we run into them, don’t act cocky. Don’t try to fight. There will always be more of them lurking, and they’ll stab first, ask questions later.”

  I swallowed a mouthful of salt water. This was the first time in the race I’d seen Tristam anything but annoyingly self-assured. And surprisingly, I didn’t like it one bit.

  It wasn’t so bad, really, once Orin had ocean-ified me. We swam in silence, skimming the bottom of the sea, navigating around protruding coral and tall seaweed fluttering in the currents. Fish darted by to inspect us—brightly-colored minnows and silver schools moving in unison. We passed purple starfish and an orange-spotted sea eel and even a translucent jellyfish glowing purple that Orin assured me was not poisonous. Like the surface of Faerwild, the depths of its sea was filled with beauty and wonder. And, I was certain, danger.

  A skeletal hulk of wood caught my eye off to the left, and I found myself examining it. It was a faerie shipwreck
. I didn’t know how old the poor vessel was, or how long it had been there, but something about it tugged at me. At the magic within me. I started swimming past, but the pull grew stronger—more insistent. I turned about, biting my lip. We’d been swimming for hours, and nothing bad had happened. Time to make some interesting TV before the producers sent a water dragon after us. Or something. I didn’t even know if water dragons existed.

  “Look,” I nudged Orin. “I’m going to check it out.”

  “Jacq, Tristam said we should stick together,” Orin protested, but I was already swimming towards it. A quick peek couldn’t hurt. Just enough to satisfy whatever strange intuitive hit I seemed to be getting.

  Orin caught up to me as I reached the wreck, peering through the gaping hole in the side. “I can’t believe I just said that. Don’t go in there Jacq—” Orin said, but I darted inside before he could finish his sentence.

  Inside the wreck was spooky, the low light of the sun barely filtering into this place. I could make out the remnants of the inside of the ship, wooden tables rotting, ropes covered in green algae, a brass bell overturned and coated with barnacles. This wreck must have been here a long time.

  “Jacq, get back here.” I heard Orin shout at me, his voice warbly in the depths.

  “Just a minute!” I called. Something glinted in the corner, underneath a pile of broken dishes. I felt the tug again. It was definitely pulling me that way. I swam closer, peering at the wooden floorboards, carefully moving one of the plates.

  A crab exploded sideways from beneath the plate, and I screeched, startled by its flight.

  “What?” Orin burst through the hole into the wreck, looking around for the danger.

  I laughed, the release feeling good. “It was a crab. It startled me. That’s all. I’m fine.”

  “Tristam and Sophia are going to get too far ahead. We could lose them,” Orin said. He was clearly feeling antsy to get out of here.

  “Now, you’re dying to get back to your BFF Tristam?” I turned back to the corner where I’d seen the glint of metal. It was a pile of silver coins, six in all. They looked ancient. “Look!” I said, holding up one. It seemed to pulse with energy in my hand. Maybe it was some sort of magic coin.

  “I don’t know what a BFF is, but this place is creepy as hell. I feel like something is going to jump out to eat us at any moment.”

  I picked up the coins and slid them into a thin zippered pouch sewn into the hip of my wetsuit. Nice of them to give us pockets. As soon as they were safely on my person, I felt a sense of relief wash over me. Like I was supposed to find these.

  “You’re being paranoid,” I said. “Nothing is going to jump out and eat us.”

  But as I moved to swim back to the window, my eyes caught another glinting light in the corner of the watery wreck. This one I recognized as the glint of teeth. And I realized how very, very wrong I’d been.

  22

  “Ohmygod,” I said, the words bubbling out of my mouth.

  Orin turned and let out an expletive that was lost to the deep. “Go!” he cried, grabbing my arm.

  He didn’t need to tell me twice. The two of us kicked off the bottom of the ship to propel us outside just as the shark torpedoed towards us with its rows of wicked teeth bared, ready for its next delicious meal. Human—followed by a faerie dessert.

  We burst through a ragged hole in what used to be the deck of the ship as the shark slammed into the wreckage where we’d just been floating. Even with Orin’s spell on our arms and legs, the shark was fast. There was no way in a million years we'd outpace a shark with only our legs to push us along. Maybe with Tristam and Sophia’s tails, but we didn’t have those…

  My panicked mind was rebelling over the idea of being shark lunch, but luckily Orin wasn't going to give up without a fight. He pointed his hand towards the shark, and a beam of light shot out, stunning the beast as it tore through the rotting deck after us. But it wouldn't be stunned long, and now that we were out in the open sea, we had nowhere to hide. I pumped my arms and legs furiously, but the effort to move at a quick pace was excruciating. My lungs burned, and my heart pounded with the pressure of the getaway.

  In the distance, I saw Tristam and Sophia swimming lazily ahead. So much for sticking together. They hadn't even noticed our absence. Okay, I could argue that I was the one that took a detour, but what kind of teammates were they if they hadn't even noticed?

  “Tristam,” I screamed in the vain hope that he'd be able to help, but it was no use. We were too far away, and my voice didn't travel very far underwater.

  “Forget him,” Orin panted, taking my hand and pulling me forward in the current.

  I risked a glance over my shoulder, and I could see he was wrong. Someone needed to come to our aid and if not Sophia and Tristam, then who? I glanced around in a panic, hoping Ben was nearby. It was officially against the rules for him to help us, but he knew I didn't have my ring to save me anymore and he wouldn't let me be eaten by a shark. Then I saw him. He was up ahead in the distance, filming Sophia along with the other cameraman. He was supposed to be with us at all times! If I survived this, I was going to have strong words with him about priorities. Keyword: if.

  I dug deep and swam with every last bit of energy I had. My muscles screamed with effort, but we needed to catch up with the others. I wasn't sure how that would help—it would probably only mean that the shark was going to have a four-course meal instead of two, but I needed a goal to keep myself moving.

  I kept my eyes on the twin lights of Ben and the other cameraman's submersibles, focusing my energy on them like a lighthouse in a storm. I was surprised at how rapidly they were getting brighter. In fact, my panic-addled brain couldn’t quite register the fact that Tristam and Sophia had turned and were swimming hurriedly toward us. Had they actually seen us fleeing from the shark and were coming to help us? It was out of character for sure, but they did need us to pass the finish line with them whether they liked it or not.

  It was only when they were close enough for me to see the terrified looks on their faces that it dawned on me that I was wrong after all. Neither of them had enough empathy to care if Orin and I died and yet the pair of them looked as petrified as I felt.

  And then I saw why. It had nothing to do with the giant shark chasing Orin and me. They were being chased too...by a dozen merfolk wielding golden tridents.

  We kind of crashed together in a watery tangle of arms and legs and fins—Tristam and Sophia hastily backing up, Ben and the other cameraperson on each side of us. Time seemed to stand still as we gaped at each other in shock. Unfortunately, no one had given the shark the memo, because while the rest of us had come to a complete standstill, he was still coming for us. I turned and screamed as he opened his jaws wide, ready to bite.

  A flash of light hit him square in the mouth and instead of chowing down on cowgirl a la wetsuit, the shark clamped his jaws shut just an inch from me, thrashing in pain. The hulking beast turned its tiny eye towards us, mean mugging us before it flicked its powerful tail swam and away.

  “You saved us,” I cried, turning to the merfolk. My body was trembling, and I felt sick to my stomach, but I was alive...and grateful. “Thank you so much!”

  My gratitude was rewarded with the butt of a trident to my stomach. “You dare to taunt a shark, an honored denizen of the deep, inside my own territory?” the nearest creature demanded. The mermaid was nothing like any I'd seen on TV or in print. She was fiercely beautiful, with long, flowing, black hair, but there was a savagery about her, from her sharp teeth to her strange angular face to the green color of her skin. There was no cute seashell bra or singing sidekicks. These mermaids and mermen were all completely naked, just as all the other creatures of the deep were. The FFR editors were going to have to do some interesting blurring before this scene was fit for prime time audiences.

  “Well?” the mermaid asked, prodding me sharply with her trident. If it wasn't for the strong material of my wetsuit, I was sure she wou
ld have pierced the skin.

  “I didn't taunt it. It followed me. It wanted to eat us.”

  This was clearly not the answer the mermaid wanted to hear. She issued a command in a language I didn’t understand, and immediately, ten other merfolk came forward and grabbed hold of Orin, Tristam, and Sophia.

  They tried to grab the cameramen too, but they couldn't get purchase on their submersibles. Ben and his cameramate turned and revved their engines, roaring out of reach. I thought the Faerie king had promised that the camera crews would have safe passage throughout the race, but perhaps he didn’t hold as much control down here as he thought.

  The only one not being held was me, but as I had a trident pressing down on my belly, I was hardly in any better a position. Could one reason with an angry mer-chick? I had to try. “We only want to pass through your city if we may. We mean you no harm.”

  The mermaid threw her head back and laughed, and the others followed suit. It was an eerie sound, a dozen merfolk laughing. It was like an accordion being played underwater with thousands of tiny bubbles rising to the surface.

  “You mean us no harm?” The mermaid echoed my words back to me. “Causing us harm shouldn't be your biggest worry. I have an army of merfolk awaiting my command. You should be more concerned about the harm we can do to you.”

  “Don't say anything else,” Tristam warned me. Not that I was planning to. What more was there to say?

  The mermaid grimaced at him then turned her attention back to me. “You will come with us.” I guessed I had no choice in the matter.

  She turned me around, and the crowd of merfolk parted, letting us through. Getting kidnapped by merfolk wasn't on my to do list when I started the day, but if they hadn't been around, I would have been ripped to shreds by shark teeth. So I suppose I couldn’t complain too much. I swam slowly, even with a trident held to my back. After racing from the shark, I didn't have the energy go any faster. The mermaid made no complaints about my speed, however.