by Starla Night
And then, at the very first test, he’d turned away from her.
That moment when the patrol had dragged Nuno through the coral, Ciran should not have pursued them bare-handed.
No.
He should have turned and flown directly into Dannika’s arms. Where she could see, feel, touch, taste him. He should have helped her steady her power until her shield was impenetrable. With her total confidence and powerful shield, then they should have gone after the warriors together.
Itime should have taken Meg. Konomelu should have taken…well, he should have guarded Bex.
Meg would have made the shark attack the kidnappers. Bex would have pushed anyone who tried to attack. And Dannika would have shielded them just in case.
They would have rescued Nuno.
Yes, his problem was that he’d said he’d believed in Dannika, but he had dropped his faith at the moment it mattered most.
And now it was too late.
“You will regret underestimating our king.” Prince Lukiyo snarled at the prisoners. “You will regret it when we welcome new recruits and feed you to the kraken.”
He kicked away, leaving the prisoners alone with the howl of the kraken screaming for her lost young.
The women worked steadily on the base of the statue, occasionally trying the mallet again with softer taps. Bex traced the mechanism up and out of the water and peeled off vines. They could operate it above or below water. As they worked, the sound mellowed, then sharpened to a nice, solid high G.
Suddenly, Meg gasped. “Oh my God, guys.” Meg held out both hands, eyes wide. “We’ve been ringing this thing all afternoon. Did we just summon the kraken?”
Oh.
Uh… “The sound wasn’t quite right until the end…” Dannika matched the winces of the other women.
“No.” Bex gave a final soft tap. “If the mirror stones are in place, the kraken won’t rise.”
“Oh yeah. Hey, do you think that’s why it didn’t rise when the island got attacked by the conquistadors? The mirror stones were in place?”
Bex shrugged.
“Itime said they used to ring the bell at an annual festival.” Meg studied it. “His great-great-grandfather attended the last one. The kraken swam freely in the sea, and the warriors all got out and celebrated where it was safe on the land. After the kraken descended again, the warriors had to clean up after her. Of course, they stopped that festival after the brides were taken, so.”
“Does that mean she’s been trapped since the time of the conquistadors?” Dannika asked.
Bex shrugged again.
“I know, right?” Meg shook her head and gazed up at the base of the statue from the clean lower depths. “And I thought twenty years was a long time with family and friends. I hope it’s a big trench.”
They took turns swimming around and under the bell.
“Is there a secret here that can save my husband?” Angie tutted. “I feel silly looking for an answer in an ancient gong. But…” She closed her eyes and opened her palms. “Answer me, oh sacred brides. Ancestors, spirits. What inner strength do I need to rescue my husband?”
“The sacred brides wouldn’t know,” Meg said practically. “They were enslaved, victimized, killed. Modern history doesn’t know who they are. They were wiped out.”
“Just like the mer,” Bex said.
“But not even in legend, right? They’re voiceless. Gone, forgotten beside a historian’s footnote guestimating how many might have been lost in the carnage.”
“Goodness, Meg.” Angie fanned herself. “How depressing.”
“It just means we probably can’t rely on the past,” Meg said. “Because if we do, we’re just repeating history. And I don’t know about you, but what happened to them is not what I want to happen to me. Or my kids.”
Bex nodded.
“Yes, I know.” Angie sighed and flexed her fingers. “I am starting to acknowledge a sensation—I don’t know if I would call it power per se, but a definite tingle—and I simply don’t know how to access it. I suppose neither did they, which is unfortunate because they certainly could have used some defenses.”
Angie was right.
The power was within Dannika, too. Bex controlled hers, but the rest of them struggled. Were they doomed to repeat the past?
“But the brides of the past didn’t know their own power,” Dannika said slowly. “We do.”
“Hm?” Angie turned to her. “What was that?”
“The brides of the past didn’t know they could wield power. Just like Bex never tried to transform, even though she felt like it might be possible. But she knows, now. We know. We’re not like the brides of the past. We are already different.”
Dannika couldn’t have saved Eliot. Even if she’d been with him on the boat. He might have died in front of her, or she might have died herself.
Ciran was still alive. She had the power.
She could save Ciran.
“I have the power,” Dannika said. “We all do.”
Her confidence glowed in her fingertips. A matching glow kindled in Bex, then Meg. It lit up the bell and the undersea lake.
And then it lit Angie, too.
“We have the power to change this,” Meg agreed, wiggling her fingers. “But…is this enough?”
“Feel your power,” Dannika urged. “Let out all your feelings. I’m sure that’s the way. Angie, how do you feel?”
“I’m so flustered about the Luscans who’ve trapped us here.” Angie made glowing fists. “I’m vexed they took Nuno and Lukiyo, and I’m also cross that they sank my yacht. I liked that yacht, even if I bottomed out on Bex’s reef once or twice. Hmm, anger isn’t really my best look.”
“It’s okay to be angry,” Dannika said. “Anger is energizing.”
“The Luscans are angry, too. And their anger is destructive.”
“But it doesn’t have to be. We must use the energy to build, to save, to love. Not to destroy, but to create.”
Everyone soaked in the light and the bell resonated with their power, gently, peacefully.
“Well, that did feel better.” Angie stretched her hands, focusing the energy into a glowing ball—a shield—around her body. “Meg, you try it.”
“Okay. Um…yeah, I still want to go to grad school, even though I’ve missed twenty years of application deadlines, and the Luscans owe me at least twenty years’ worth of birthday cakes. But I’ll still heal them because that’s who I am.” She shook her shoulders. “That’s right. Bex, it’s you. Go.”
“Feels powerful.” Bex flexed her sparkling fingertips, careful not to aim at anything, just bouncing the energy in place. “You know, I wanted to go with the warriors. They didn’t want me to. I shouldn’t have let them tell me no.”
“You never let anyone tell you anything,” Meg said.
“Yeah. I’ve been compromising for three years. It was the right thing to do until you came.” Bex nodded at Dannika. “And then it was the wrong thing. Maybe I was scared to change.”
“You know.” Angie bit her lip, and her glowing shield flickered. “I wouldn’t normally admit this, but I’m worried we may have to take this rescuing business into our own hands.”
“Oh, me too, like, two weeks ago. Oops.” Meg’s light went out. She flicked her fingers, and the light returned. “Good. Oh, how funny. I couldn’t shift for the longest time, but now I just know how to get it back.”
Ciran had tried to be Dannika’s strength. And she had only feared losing him. But she hadn’t ever considered the other possibility—that she could lose him and then go take him back.
That’s what she had to do now.
Wherever he was, she would find him. She would save him. And she would love him.
Because she was his soul mate.
Warmth blossomed in her chest and flowed down her fingers as if she’d taken a deep gulp of hot cocoa. It radiated through her body with whipped cream happiness. She opened her eyes, and the light glowed from her fingers, too.<
br />
She reached out to Angie on one side and Bex on the other.
They reached back. Angie and Meg touched fingers on the other side.
The light danced between their fingertips, brighter and brighter. A subtle vibration shook the bell. Loose dirt and pebbles cascaded from hidden places, and the metal glowed. It sounded a pure, clear, bright tone.
Like the Life Tree, the sound felt holy, but unlike the Life Tree, the vibrations could also do damage. Its duality tingled in her fingers. This bell was anger, and anger could create or destroy.
The brides of the past had experienced tragedy.
The warriors had lived on twisted by their grief, closed off to future brides, unable to seek new soul mates.
Dannika had almost done the same. Rejecting the devotion of Ciran, she’d preferred her solitary, stunted, upside-down life.
But now she embraced Ciran.
She took his strength and she gave him her strength.
Wherever you are my love, feel me. I am coming for you.
Hope welled in her like a bubbling fountain.
She was coming for him.
Dannika opened her eyes and lowered her hands. In unison, the other women did the same, each blinking and flexing their still-bright fingers.
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to kick some fins.” Meg cracked her knuckles. “Lovingly, of course.”
“You must be my daughter.” Angie smiled at her beatifically. “Because I feel exactly the same way.”
Bex grinned.
A discordant noise echoed into the lake. Something was very wrong.
Bex turned toward the lagoon entrance.
Meg gasped. “Did you hear that?”
Angie stiffened and pressed a hand to her chest. “I’m sure it’s…Hmm.”
A panicked scream echoed down the tunnel from the lagoon. “Mom!”
Hadali.
Oh, no.
Bex’s fins erupted and she dove for the underwater tunnel, flying faster than Dannika had ever seen a mer move. The others followed.
Dannika’s heart pounded. Dread reverberated in her chest. Her fins bashed the inside of the narrow tunnel. She’d unfurled them without thinking.
Dannika burst after the other women into the lagoon.
The boulder had moved.
Bex darted into the open ocean, heedless of danger.
The ocean was empty of mer, but filled, absolutely filled, with squid.
She shoved one derpy squid out of her path. “Hadali? Hadali!”
Angie and Meg floated behind her, calling for their sons, too.
But wherever their children were, they weren’t calling back.
Bex put out maximum power, vibrating to fill the ocean. “Hadali!”
No one answered.
The women swam into the cavern, not because they had any doubt about where their children were, but because they had to know why.
They had to know everything.
Dannika chucked water to shift as fast as possible. Bex staggered to her feet first, forcing herself to move as she threw up.
Val collapsed on the cavern floor rocking and crying. She saw them and tried to get up without her crutch. Her leg gave way. She fell back with a cry.
Bex helped her to sit upright. “What happened?”
“I’m so sorry,” Val sobbed. “I thought we’d be safe here. I thought we’d be safe.”
“Val.”
“We were up on the headland, searching for seabirds, and Tulu saw them. They were in that shallow water, where you usually let the kids play. Then one of them walked on the land. We hid in this cave. It was supposed to be holy ground.”
“It’s okay,” Bex said.
“It’s not okay!” Val sucked in a choking breath. “They came up from the lagoon, like you three just now, with weapons and screaming. The one big one said, ‘The males are all gone, and females cannot protect the young fry on land, alone,’ so they had to take the kids for their own protection. And, I had my staff, but I just froze. I was so scared. I didn’t know what to do. They took the children and I—I did nothing. Oh no.” Val shook, horrified at her own inaction.
“It’s really okay,” Bex repeated.
“But I let them take—”
“Val, we know these warriors.” Angie rested a calming hand on her shoulder, gentle but inflexible. “Bex means you did the right thing. If you’d interfered, they would have hurt you.”
“I did nothing—”
“You’ve told us what happened.”
“But I let them go. I let them all go.”
“Val.”
“I’m sorry. I’m so, so, so—”
“Val.”
“Sorry.” She blinked and focused on Angie. “Sorry?”
“We need you.”
She shook her head, confused.
“We’ll have to leave you for a little while.” Angie sat on her knees and bowed. “You know how to operate the radio?”
“I mean, as much as we can operate it, sure.”
“Then you must remain ready with the radio to tell our story.”
“Tell? Story?”
“Val, we need you,” Meg repeated Angie’s earlier statement, and it finally seemed to sink in.
She calmed down, sniffled, and wiped her cheeks. “Okay. I can be here. I can tell your story for you. If it takes ten years before a ship crashes on that reef, I’ll tell your story. I’ll, uh, woman the radio and, uh, eat your squid jerky.”
After all these weeks, Val knew how to get fresh water, how to shelter from storms, how to stoke the fire, and how to access the stores of food. She would be fine for a few weeks.
Bex held out her arms to form a huddle with Angie and Meg, and they motioned to Dannika to enter the huddle as well.
“Feelings.” Bex nodded at Dannika. “You said it. It’s the diesel for our engine. So, I’m angry. Angie?”
“Well, I’m highly displeased.” Angie sucked in a deep breath and let it out with a glare that personified trouble. “No, I am angry. I’m slow to anger but they managed it. Oh, yes, they actually did.”
“Mom’s angry now,” Meg said. “Watch out.”
“You?” Bex prodded Meg.
“Oh, me? I’m way beyond anger. I’m one safety violation away from an explosion at the fireworks factory.”
Yes, that summarized Dannika’s feelings nicely.
“They took our husbands,” Bex pointed out. “Invaded Sanctuary. Violated their own sacred church.”
“They violated everything,” Meg said.
Angie said what they were all thinking. “This cannot go on.”
And now it was time to do something about it.
“Can we lean into this feeling?” Dannika asked. “We’re angry but focused. Sort of a calm rage.”
“Isn’t that an oxymoron?” Meg asked. “But you’re right. That’s exactly what’s going on inside.”
“Yes, I am enraged, and I am also calm.” Angie seemed to be feeling her way into acceptance for the strong emotions. “Because this will not stand. We will not allow them to take our husbands, take our children. We will go to Lusca and we will get them back.”
Everyone nodded.
Bex released the huddle and stood. “Right now.”
They started in unison toward the water.
“I hate to just invade a neighboring city without warning. That’s like attending a sit-down wedding dinner after you’ve neglected to RSVP.” Angie pulled back her shoulders and straightened her spine. “But, it is what it is. We don’t always get what we want.”
Dannika stopped. “Why not??
“Hmm?”
“Why can’t we have everything we want?”
“Well.” Angie frowned. “Because there’s no way to send a warning that we’re coming, is there?”
Meg and Bex both turned to Dannika. Realization dawned on their faces. It broke over Angie’s a moment later. “Oh.”
Dannika nodded. “The bell.”
“Yeah…” Bex mused. “‘Red skies at morning, sailors take warning.’ That’s their thing. ‘Bell of the brides…’”
“Better run and hide?” Meg tried to finish her rhyme.
“Join our cause with pride,” Angie said.
“That works too,” Meg said.
War or peace. The bell had both meanings.
“But we can’t ring it too soon.” Angie tapped her index finger against her chin. “If we ring it now and show up a week later, they might not realize it’s linked.”
“True,” Meg said. “Oh, but we can ask Val. It’ll be a struggle, but she can do it.”
“What are you all talking about?” Val asked, still shaky. “You’re on your own mystical wavelength over there. I mean, whatever you want, I’ll do it.”
Bex returned to Val. “When we’ve been gone…a week. Ankena said it takes a week to reach Lusca. We’re not experienced travelers…”
“But we’ll go fast.” Meg flexed her ankles, shifting from feet to fins and back again. “At least as fast as the warriors. We’ve got superpowers.”
Bex considered it, then sketched out the plan for Val. “Seven days from now, exactly, go down into the crater and shove the long pipe. You’ll see it. That will ring the bell.”
“Okay.” Val sniffed. “You want me to ring the bell?”
“As hard as you can.” Bex nodded to Dannika. “It will warn the Luscans we’re coming. It has two meanings. They can decide which one they want. A celebration of peace—”
“And they’re welcome to join us.” Angie opened her palms in invitation. “They really are.”
“Right.” Bex hardened. “Because the second meaning is a declaration of war.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Something was happening.
Ciran peered up through the coral prison.
The tone of the patrols sounded different. Anticipating. The first lieutenant of the city flew from unit to unit overhead.
Both teams with squids had left some time ago. They were continuing their reign of violence, sinking ships on the surface, and it was too soon for either team to return.
This was something different.
He flexed his hands.
They moved easily. He’d been feeling stronger and healthier for some time. Ever since he’d realized his mistake at the island kidnapping, he’d sensed Dannika in his soul, filling his body, flooding him with strength. Konomelu and Itime, in the other cells, had also healed—and more than he would have expected, given the normal rates of healing for the mer.
