I swallowed hard, rubbing my hands over my face and pushing away the fear and grief that had continued to almost overwhelm me, every time I thought about Merrick.
“We will rescue him.” Dad spoke quietly.
“Not unless we come up with an incredible plan,” I whispered, allowing the fear that continuously edged my thoughts a tiny voice. “I don’t even know where to begin!”
“Let’s start with the biggest advantage Neith has,” Dad suggested.
“Oh you mean his massive, well organised and very motivated army?”
“No, I was thinking more along the lines of the children…our Oceanids, in fact any Oceanids, are going to struggle to attack children. Did you see any at Ferengren?”
I shook my head. “No, but Neith did specifically threaten the adults with the death of their children if they didn’t do as he said. Perhaps he was keeping them in a different part of Ferengren. I was only there for a short while and…” The flashes of brilliant colour on my way out suddenly made sense. “Oh wait, I think they were being kept in a big group near the entrance to Ferengren.”
“We have to find a way to get them away from there before we attack, otherwise it will be a complete shambles.”
“What if Neith has been using the Påvirke on them too? They will quite probably be our greatest threat as they are so powerful.”
He winced. “We’ll have to fine-tune that bit of the plan later. For now, what skills do you think we need?”
“We definitely need to be able to fight one on one, but also to fight as a unit. If I practise I might be able to make the whole pod multitalented…at least that’s the theory, but having a whole bunch of talents hurtling all over the show might be more disastrous than if we each fought one on one.”
He nodded. “You’re right, co-ordination is one of our greatest challenges, especially because no one here has ever fought before. I have got quite a lot of experience with organising Oceanids though so that shouldn’t be too difficult. I’ve trained groups like this before, but it only makes us equal to Neith, not better than him and that’s what we need to be.” He gazed at me unhappily. “You are our greatest tactical advantage, it’s just…” His face was pained.
“You don’t think I can do this.”
He didn’t answer me.
I clenched my fists at my sides, hurt that the one person who really knew me didn’t have enough faith in me.
“I have amazing talents, Dad,” I said, forming a blue ball of power between my palms, holding it out for him to see. “I can see and hear and smell like the strongest Traduzir. I have extreme speed and the ability to read not only emotions and motives in a person’s spiritus but also their immediate future action. All of the Oceanid talents run through me and can be amplified and unified and shared through me.” Tears stung my throat. “And of all the people here, I didn’t think I’d have to convince you to believe in me.”
“Oh Alex, no…” He moved to try and hug me but I moved away from him angrily. “Alexandra, I do believe in you, I always have. You are amazing Alex, I’ve always known that and it’s not something I question at all, my darling, I just…”
“Just what, Dad?”
“I just don’t want you in the middle of all of this. I…I’m not strong enough to watch you be the focus of so much evil. From the moment you were born and filled the room with your lusty little cries, I’ve been trying to protect you from this and now…now you’re the central player in it.”
“You could have stopped that you know. If you’d just told me who I was, I wouldn’t have been so helpless when I first met them on the camping trip. I might have been able to lead them in peace and Neith would never have had the tactical advantage he does now.”
He winced. “I made a mistake, Alex. I didn’t trust you enough to tell you that your old man was half mermaid without you completely freaking out. I didn’t think you were strong enough to handle it. I was wrong on both counts.”
“So what…you just want me to sit this one out? Stand on the sidelines while everyone else fights for my cause? For my love? For my species?”
“Could I take your place? Please Alex, let me bear the brunt of Neith’s hatred, not you.”
I stared at my Dad in shock as his eyes filled with tears, as a plan began to form.
“OK,” I replied. His face registered first surprise and then delight. “On one condition.” I held up my hand as he moved to hug me again.
“What?” He was immediately alert.
“When the time comes, I will ‘defect’ to Neith’s side and lead an attack from the inside.”
Dad went white.
“Absolutely not! How is that taking your place?”
“Dad, just think about it for a moment. If Neith believes I’m on his side, he will reveal his plan to me, he will put me in charge of groups of Oceanids, he will show me where the children are and release Merrick. I’ll have the best advantage and be out of danger…for the most part.”
“That is a huge if, Alex. What if he finds out what you’re planning to do?”
“How would he?”
“He probably has spies within The Haven. Think about it, how would he know that the children were in the traps unless he had someone here…maybe not in The Haven, but close. We can’t rule that out.”
“OK, so we don’t tell anyone here. I’ll train with everyone, teach them to access my talents, be a complete part of this army and then go ahead of them and wait for you to lead them there.”
Dad shook his head again. “Alex, it’s too dangerous.”
“The safest place for me to be, at the beginning of the attack at least, is right beside Neith.”
“And the most dangerous place for you to be when the attack begins is right beside Neith.”
“Well then, you best make sure you get to me on time.” I threw him a tentative grin.
He didn’t smile back at me, his face creased in worry.
“How else are we going to win this thing, Dad? We need to have someone on the inside, someone we can trust. We can’t afford to lose, because if we do, Merrick, Mom, everyone will die.”
He ran his fingers through his hair. “ I know, Alex, but how do I substitute your life for theirs?”
“Well, do you have a better idea?”
He sighed. “The only way this might work, and I’m not saying it will or that I think it’s a good idea is if we use your plan, but it’s me on the inside.”
I was immediately horrified at the idea because as much as I was angry with Dad, I didn’t want him to die, and I knew, even if I’d told him it would all be OK, that there was a good chance it wouldn’t be. The consequences didn’t bear thinking about.
“I have some experience with betrayal of this nature, it’s why I had to leave the ocean.”
I quirked an eyebrow at him.
“I led a pod of Gurrer who took on the responsibility The Haven now holds. We implemented peace and innocence in each pod and looked for Oceanid traitors, those who betrayed our kind to humans. On one mission we came across a pod that had been annihilated, completely wiped out, all except for one old Oceanid. It was confusing because there were no resources humans would be interested in there. I sent the rest of my group ahead, staying the night to search for clues, and talking to the Oceanid who had survived a brutal beating. He described a group of Oceanids as the vigilantes. They had come to the pod demanding a type of tax for their work as the peace keepers. We were the only peace-keeping group in the ocean so it had to be some of my pod that had done it. I spent a few weeks trying to work out who it could be, confiding only in my second in command about my worries. She was completely committed to finding the traitors in our midst and eventually pinpointed three of them, the biggest and most aggressive of them, as the perpetrators.She set up a ‘trial’ for them in a deep cavern, far away from the surface and completely isolated in the wastes of the blue. When I went to sit as judge, all four of them attacked me and beat me until they thought I was dead. It was Nasr
in, my second in command, the woman I was engaged to marry, who set me adrift on the current so that all would know that their hero had fallen.”
His face was creased in worry. “I never suspected her, Alex, not even for a moment. I’ve thought about her betrayal for years, trying to work out why I didn’t suspect it, and it was her complete dedication to me that did it.”
“Dad, we don’t have time for Neith to want to promote you to second in command. Why would he choose you?”
“I have a reputation for war.”
“Yeah but why would he believe that you would fight against your own daughter? He knows everything about you… In fact, he knows everything about anyone who was in the mountain pod. Our only hope for getting this part of the plan right would be to send in an Oceanid from The Haven… but I just…I don’t know any of them here.”
Dad sighed, rubbing his hand across his head. “OK, so we need to get the Oceanids in The Haven practising and quickly. I’d like to use this evening’s gathering to discuss talents and formations with them. And Alex…”
“Yeah?”
“Trust no one with this part of the plan. We’re going to have to talk to Aoi and try to work out who the best person would be to infiltrate Ferengren. We ’re also going to help you find your own Zmija and we need to get you trained in using a Mizrak…”
“You mean a serpent?”
“Yes, they are hugely powerful.”
“Yeah but I won’t need to ride one will I?”
He nodded. “It will help us get to Ferengren faster although we’ll have to let them go when we get there.”
“Why?”
“We don’t use animals in fights…it’s just not done.”
“And what was the other thing I should be learning?”
“A Mizrak is the blade you’ve seen them all using…”
He told me more about the weaponry we had available, and then went into more detail about the training we would all need to go through. The list went on and on until abruptly I said,
“We have no chance at winning this do we?”
He was silent for a few moments. “I have seen amazing things, Alex. There is always a chance.”
The full weight of what we were going to attempt weighed heavily on me. “I’ve been thinking we should apply some human tactics too, because Neith won’t know them.”
“Good idea, any specific concepts?”
“Maybe we should have sort of waves of talents to attack them, so organise all of the Påvirke we have to start sending them dreams immediately, then have the Aseet attack at a certain time and the Gurrers at another place and time and the Mami-wata at another. You know, like archers and cavalry…that type of thing.”
Dad grinned. “I like it, but I think we should also utilise your ability to share talents to strengthen the attack even further.”
“Yeah, only problem is I can’t be touching everyone all the time.”
ad looked thoughtful. “I think you might still be able to share the talents from a distance.”
“Really? How?”
“It’s easier to explain if I show you,” he replied.
“What about armour?” I asked, thinking of the thin garments many of the Oceanids wore.
“That’s not normally something we use.”
“Well, it is now, and that’s another thing, I want to talk to the Shaha to find out what is normal in Oceanid war.”
He nodded. “Paying attention to our traditions would be a good idea.”
I agreed, but not for the reasons he thought. I wanted to break every preconception of war the Oceanids had, because just surprising Neith in his lair would never be enough to beat him, of that I was a hundred percent certain.
15. Trust
The council meeting was thick with anger. All of the Oceanids were speaking at once, shaking their heads and waving their hands as they tried to get their point across.
Aoi held up his hands for quiet.
“Alexandra and Zydrunas have come up with a good plan…”
Thanh was the first Oceanid invited to the floor. He was relatively short compared to the others, but the wild energy that seemed to swirl from him more than made up for his stature. I recognised him as the Oceanid who had ridden the Zmija earlier that morning.
“The full rage of the Zmija is on our side, we can leave immediately and free these Oceanids and remove this scum from the seas.”
I was about to start arguing when Dad shook his head slightly.
The next Oceanid to speak was Takimu. He towered over Thanh, powerful muscles rippling across his torso and a long glinting blade holstered in a wide belt around his waist. His skin was covered in cruel-looking barbs marking him as an Aseet, and from the revered expression on the other Oceanids’ faces, I assumed many followed him.
“I am in agreement with Thanh, let us chase these abominable Oceanids down and relieve them of their lives.”
“They don’t know what they’re up against,” I muttered to Dad. “We can’t let them race out of here or they’ll become part of Neith’s army.”
“We’ll let them all talk and then give them the direction they need,” he whispered back. “They were always going to rip our ideas apart at first.”
The next Oceanid to speak was a woman, Helle, her long thick black hair swirling around a slight frame and impish face.
“Our first priority must be the children. What if there are more of them abandoned in the forest, or even worse in the open ocean? So much knowledge and learning could be lost, and think of the detriment to future generations. Let us focus our energies on rescuing them from Neith’s clutches.”
The final advisor was older but still very beautiful. Her eyes glowed a deep sapphire blue and her white hair was pulled neatly away from her face in an intricate tangle of plaits.
“In times past, we have made use of the strongholds that have protected our people from evil. Let us leave The Haven and descend into the depths for a little while until this madness has passed us by.”
Their ideas were met with confused and unstructured conversation from at least ten Oceanids who, I was to discover later, made up the deciding committee. Aoi seemed swayed by each new argument as he struggled to guide the meeting and the emotions that swilled around them.
As I listened I wondered if I’d do a better job than him. It was all very well to criticise him, but I’d been in a similar position when I’d found the mountain pod in disarray. It wasn’t easy to make decisions for such a liberal people.
“Alexandra, Zydrunas, could you explain your plan?” Aoi invited us to the floor.
Dad reiterated the training he thought was needed in the pod amidst much muttering. When it was my turn I took a deep breath, hoping I’d be able to connect with a big enough group to sway the opinion.
“The Haven is the essence of all that is good in the Ocean. Neith is bent on destroying that by using Oceanid children as weapons. Not only will this put these children and their parents in great danger, but it will destroy their innocence and leave you with a legacy of violence and blood lust to deal with. At the moment Neith believes he has the upper hand...”
“And he is right,” the older woman cut in.
I held up my hand to stop the storm of arguments I could see brewing in their faces.
“He thinks he knows all there is to know about my ability to share talent.” I smiled at them.“He believes you to be weak.We are going to show him that he is wrong and that Oceanids will not just allow him to do as he pleases, that we will stand together against this abomination.”
A few nods and mutterings of agreement gave me the courage to continue.
“The Haven is going to beat him with varying layers of surprise. We are not going to be able to do things as they’ve been done in the past. And the first thing that will have to change is the openness of this forum.”
There was an immediate explosion of sound as each Oceanid argued.
I held up my hands again and waited until the sound
had abated. “Each of you will be put in charge of an area of the attack, but none of you will know the bigger plan until it unfolds.” They began to argue again.
“The reason for this…” I spoke over the hub-bub, “the reason for this is simply to protect us from the probings of Neith’s Påvirke. They are immensely strong but I doubt they will be able to access everyone’s thoughts at once.”
“So you’re asking us to trust you, a stranger and a Halfling, with the our future and our lives?” Takimu asked.
“Yes.”
He shook his head.
“We could just wait this storm out. Just stay here and help those that come back from the battle,” Helle argued.
Pelagius spoke now.“You have developed a comfortable mind-set here in your Haven.” His voice was quiet around the harsh words. “You think that because you are within these walls you have the right to choose whether to stand against evil or hide from it. I have lived a long time now and what I have come to know of evil is that unless you stand, it will find you out. Apathy is not an option. Alexandra’s plan may seem foreign to you, but understand that Neith has no qualms with breaking tradition to get what he wants. If he is willing to endanger that which is most precious to our species – our children – do not think he will stop at anything to achieve his goal.”
They all stopped talking to listen to him.
“I know it is difficult for you to trust this young woman. She is, after all, a Halfling, but what you need to see is that it is this difference that gives us the advantage. She thinks differently, she will do things differently, and it is this difference that gives this impossible mission hope.”
Aoi moved into the centre of the council and nodded once.
“We will co-operate with Alexandra and Zydrunas.” Then he turned to us, his expression grim. “ But be aware that it is not a thoughtless co-operation and if at any point I see the need, I will withdraw The Haven’s commitment to you.”
Dad and I nodded.
We started work immediately, splitting the group into their respective talents and testing their abilities to see what we had to work with. We then assigned each of them to do the same with the other Oceanids in The Haven.
Fire (The Mermaid Legacy - Book 2) Page 10
