Doomsday Magic

by Linsey Hall

  “Together!” I shouted. “You take the sky. I’ll take the sea!”

  Our problem before had been that I’d tried to do both. Better to focus. Especially when a wave could capsize us.

  “Aye!” Lachlan’s magic surged, pouring out into the sky as he forced the clouds to calm, the lightning to fade.

  I worked on the ocean, feeling the waves within me like they were part of my soul. I calmed the sea, pushing the waves down until they were manageable.

  “Keep it up!” Fearnan shouted. “We’re almost through!”

  Rain and wind beat at us as the rickety old boat struggled through the sea, pushing ever onward as we tried to keep the storm at bay. The waves rolled at us, large enough to make my stomach pitch, but not so big that they would swamp the boat.

  Finally, we made it through the worst of the storm. It took less magic to control the water, until finally, we rolled on rocky waves of a normal, non-deadly height.

  “Are you still controlling the weather?” I asked Lachlan, as a gentle rain pattered on my face.

  “No.” He lowered his hands. “Just stopped.”

  I sagged, my muscles going lax.

  “We’re through!” Fearnan shouted. “Not bad!”

  I raised a brow at Lachlan. “High praise.”

  “Aye, he’s full of compliments, that Fearnan.”

  The boat seemed to creak even more than it had before the storm, and I patted the deck gratefully. It had gotten us through.

  The sky was a solid gray color, dreary and dull. For as far as I could see in any direction, the sea was empty. Just rolling waves, gray upon gray. Fearnan had to be using a compass or some other navigational system, since there were absolutely no landmarks by which to navigate.

  “How far are we?” I shouted back to him.

  “Hard to say. Depends on what the ocean throws at us.”

  “So there will be more,” I muttered.

  Lachlan’s expression turned grim. “Aye, but we’ll handle it.”

  The boat continued to rock onward, the old motor pushing us toward our destination. I kept my eyes on the horizon, hoping it would keep the sea sickness at bay.

  I’d nearly been lulled into a trance by the time something thumped hard against the hull.

  I jumped. “What’s that?”

  Fearnan darted out of the wheelhouse and leaned over the side of the boat, looking down. At first, he was silent. Then there was another thump, louder than the last, and so hard that it shook my bones. The whole boat shuddered.

  “Fates alive, it’s the Weeden.” Fearnan’s voice trembled.

  “What’s the Weeden?” Lachlan asked.

  A massive green tentacle reached up from the depths and wrapped around the bow of the boat.

  “That,” Fearnan said. “And if we don’t cut it off at the source, it’ll drag the boat down.”

  My heart leapt into my throat as the tentacle tightened around the bow. Only then did I realize that it wasn’t a tentacle at all. It was a massive sea vine. Plant, not animal.

  “We have to cut it from below?” I asked as I hurried to the edge of the deck.

  “There’s a main stalk, about forty feet down. Give or take twenty feet,” Fearnan said. “The vines that shoot off of it wrap around the boat. Cut the main one, and they’ll all go.”

  “Right, then.” I looked at Lachlan, who’d joined me at the side of the boat. He nodded, unclipped his safety line, then drew his sword from the ether. I did the same, calling upon a large dagger.

  I jumped overboard and plunged deep into the ocean. Cold water closed around me, a second shock to the system. I opened my eyes to the darkness and shook my hand, igniting the magic in my lightstone ring. It glowed, illuminating the dark water around me.

  My eyes burned from the salt and my vision was weird, but I spotted the vines wrapped around the hull of the boat. They came up from the depths, tapering toward a central point deeper in the water. I kicked toward them, driving myself deeper as the cold water surged around me.

  I could feel the water like it was part of myself, and though my lungs ached from lack of air, it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. My water power was helping me.

  Lachlan appeared out of the corner of my vision, swimming down as fast as he could. He was bigger and stronger than me, moving powerfully through the water. I kicked harder to keep up, following the vines down. They grew closer together as they neared their central stalk.

  Icy cold made my limbs awkward as I struggled to go deeper. Forty feet, my arse. This was sixty or seventy, at least.

  Finally, we reached the central point where a massive stalk grew up from the depths of the ocean. The smaller vines grew out of it, reaching up toward the boat that floated on the surface.

  I prayed we weren’t too late as I reached the huge stalk of seaweed and began to saw at it with my dagger. Lachlan joined me, cutting at it from the opposite side.

  My lungs and muscles burned as I worked, but slowly, the blade cut through the weed. I couldn’t imagine how badly Lachlan wanted to breathe. He didn’t have my power, after all.

  Finally, we severed the stalk. I kicked away from it, moving to swim upward.

  Horror swept through me when I realized I had no idea which way was up. The sky was so dark from above that the water didn’t glow from the surface. Everything was a uniform black outside of the glow of my lightstone ring. I looked all around for the stalk that we had severed, hoping to find it to orient myself, but it was gone.

  My heart thundered as I kicked, trying to figure out which way to go. Close by, Lachlan seemed to be having the same problem.

  I was about to call on my water magic, though I had no idea how it could help me here, when an idea flared.

  Carefully, I released some of the air in my lungs. The bubbles spilled forth, rising.

  I followed them, kicking for the surface, every muscle burning. Lachlan did the same.

  We had only risen a few yards when something huge appeared overhead.

  The vines!

  Now that they were disconnected from their source, they’d died and lost their grip on the boat above. They sank through the water, heavy and huge, almost like a massive spiderweb falling down through the water.

  I tried to kick away, to escape them, but a huge one hit me on the head, forcing me deeper into the water. I struggled and flailed but couldn’t make any progress. We were so deep that the ocean felt like it weighed a million pounds. Like we were swimming through pudding while trying to dodge huge falling objects.

  It was impossible.

  Unable to help myself, I screamed, bubbles flaring toward the surface. The vine continued to force me deeper. Frantic, I tried to kick away from the vine, but it was big and heavy.

  My muscles felt frozen with fear as I struggled. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw that Lachlan was trapped under another vine. He swam out from under it but was hit by another.

  They were falling like logs through the water, and it was impossible to escape them.

  I did the only thing I could—I called on the water to help us. With every ounce of magic and strength, I commanded the water to force us upward.

  It did, at first. But it also forced the vines up. They were so damned heavy that it was more than I could manage.

  My lungs burned so badly that I almost sucked in water. To my right, Lachlan’s body went limp. Without my water power, he’d run out of breath.

  No!

  Terror like I’d never known surged through me.

  He couldn’t be dead!

  We floated amongst the huge dead vines as the water tried to force us upward. I used every bit of power I had, begging the sea to help us. To get us to the surface.

  Please.

  5

  Something wrapped tight around my wrist, and I startled, looking over.

  A woman had grabbed me. No, a mermaid. Her hair was made of weeds and her eyes glowed an eerie green. Frilly gills decorated her neck, looking almost like a necklace, and her
tail fin was at least eight feet long.

  I pointed to Lachlan and screamed, “Save him, too!”

  Bubbles poured from my mouth and my words were unintelligible, but she seemed to understand. She dragged me toward him, dodging the huge vines with such swift skill that I could barely comprehend it.

  She grabbed Lachlan’s wrist and raced for the surface, dragging us with her. Water rushed by me, along with the dead vines that continued to sink toward the seafloor.

  We broke through the surface of the ocean, and I gasped, desperately sucking in air as I reached for Lachlan’s limp body.

  “Your boat is there!” The mermaid pointed behind me, her voice sounded bubbly and weird.

  I turned, catching sight of it fifty yards away. Too far for me to drag Lachlan’s body and have any hope of getting the water out of his lungs in time.

  Desperate, I turned back to the mermaid, catching her green eyes. “Can you take us?”

  Before the words had fully left my mouth, she’d grabbed our arms again and started to drag us. We were at the boat seconds later. Fearnan leaned over the side.

  “Help me get him up!” I screamed as I climbed onto the boat. I was still lightheaded from lack of air, my water power only able to help me so much.

  Fearnan grabbed Lachlan as the mermaid helped push, and his limp body thudded onto the deck.

  His skin was pale and his eyes closed. I scrambled over to him, fear icing my skin.

  “Lachlan!” I slapped him, but he didn’t wake.

  Water in the lungs.

  I debated CPR, but that almost never worked. Instead, I placed my hands on his chest and called upon my magic, feeding my healing light into him. My palms glowed and so did his chest, lighting up with the healing power that Sulis had given me.

  The light of life, she’d called it.

  Well, it’d better work.

  Hot tears poured down my face as I tried to bring him back. Panic made my heart thunder. I didn’t want to imagine a world without Lachlan. Especially if he died trying to save my sorry ass.

  “Come on, damn you!” My voice broke.

  Finally—freaking finally—he coughed up some water. Then some more.

  “Breathe!” I cried.

  He did, sucking in a ragged breath as his eyes popped open. They went straight to mine, their dark depths pinned to me.

  I loved him.

  The thought flashed so suddenly through my mind.

  I’d almost lost him, and it had made me realize that I loved him.

  It had been a crazy short time, but it was true. Nearly losing him made it so obvious.

  I was about to blurt it out when he sat up.

  “Holy fates, that was close.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “What happened?”

  I threw my arms around him and squeezed, a near-hysterical laugh bubbling up. “A mermaid saved us.”

  I let go of him, giving him one last desperate look, then turned to look over the side of the boat.

  The mermaid floated there, her green eyes on us. All of her was green, actually. A pale, gray-green that looked like the sea at dusk. She looked like a cross between a fish and a person, with more fishy attributes to her top half than I was used to seeing in fictional depictions of mermaids.

  “Thank you,” I said. “You saved us.”

  “I heard you calling for help.” Her voice still bubbled, like she wasn’t used to talking out of the water. “I’ve never heard that before.”

  “I have some weird magic.” I didn’t know quite how to describe it. There was the elemental magic that allowed me to control water, yes. But there was also the light of life and the understanding of my environment. Somehow, that had all combined to send out a signal that we needed help.

  Thank fates for that.

  “What’s your name?” I asked.

  “Merodia. I live near here, with my people.”

  “Never seen no mermaids before,” Fearnan muttered.

  I glared, not wanting his rudeness to drive our helper away. “Well, thank you. We owe you our lives.”

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Fearnan said.

  “What does that mean?”

  He pointed to the bow, and I turned to look. It was tilted unnaturally low in the water, pointing down toward the sea.

  “Oh, shit.” I scrambled backward. We were sinking. In all the stress, I hadn’t realized.

  “The vines tore away some of the planks at the bow,” Fearnan said. “We’ll only float for another ten minutes or so. Fifteen, maybe.”

  Lachlan surged to his feet. “We can’t patch it?”

  “Don’t have the materials. The planks and nails fell overboard when the vines tore away.”

  Shit, we had been too late. Frantic, my mind raced. We needed a boat. We had to keep going.

  “I can help,” Merodia said.

  I leaned over the side of the boat. “Really?”

  “I will go look for the missing planks and nails.”

  I stared at her, dumbfounded. “But they could be anywhere for miles, carried by the current as they sank.”

  “I can feel everything in my sea. Everything that is out of place, everything new that shouldn’t be here. Give me five minutes.”

  “I’m afraid that’s all we can spare.” I glanced toward the bow. “Thank you.”

  “I’ll be back.”

  She dived under the water. I turned back to Fearnan and Lachlan.

  “Do you really think this will work?” Fearnan asked.

  “Do you have any better ideas?”

  “I was just going to swim home.” He shrugged.

  “And leave us to drown.”

  He shrugged again. “I explained the dangers.”

  He hadn’t been exaggerating. But I couldn’t think about a scenario in which Merodia failed. We had to fix this boat. “Just assume she’ll find the pieces. Do you have a hammer?”

  “A mallet, yes.”

  “Well, get it, then.”

  He grumbled and turned, going back to the wheelhouse. My heart thundered as we waited, the bow dipping lower in the water. If I focused, I thought I could hear the water rushing in below deck.

  Lachlan squeezed my hand. “We’ll manage.”

  Tension thrummed in the air as I watched the sea, praying to see Merodia’s green head popping up above the waves. I imagined her deep below the surface, seeking out the pieces we needed to put the boat back together. Her power had to be a bit like mine, sensing things in the environment around her.

  Minutes ticked by as we waited. We were so low in the water that it was nearly to my shoes when her head finally popped to the surface. Four more mermaids were with her, all of them looking vaguely similar.

  She held up some planks and grinned, revealing a mouthful of fangs. “I think we’ve found what you need!”

  “We’ll need to prop the boat up,” one of the mermaids said. He was a guy, from what I could tell. “Then you can hammer the planks back in place.”

  The four mermaids gathered around the boat and put their hands to the hull. Then the sea rippled around them as their fins worked underwater. Slowly, the boat rose. Water poured out of the hole in the hull.

  “Quickly!” grunted one of the mermaids.

  I looked at Lachlan. “I’ll hang over and do the repairs if you’ll hold on to my legs.”

  He nodded. I took the hammer from Fearnan and ran to the bow, hanging over the edge. Merodia swam up, her arms full of wood and leafy seaweed. A smaller mermaid popped up next to her, holding a handful of nails. Some looked really old and rusty—maybe not even from this boat—but they’d have to do.

  “I’ll hold the planks and you nail,” Merodia said.

  Around us, the mermaids breathed heavily as they kept the boat floating high on the water. Most of the water that had flooded the hull had poured out, thank fates.

  Merodia shoved some of the leafy seaweed against the gap and then put the board in place. “The weeds will close the spaces between the wood. Like
the caulking I have seen on other boats.” She smiled. “I’ve made a point to study the boats.”

  “Good thinking.” I took a nail from the smaller mermaid and began to hammer the plank into place.

  “It won’t work well, or for long, though. Best get where you are going quickly.”

  The blood rushed to my head as I worked, but finally, the hole was patched.

  Merodia swam back a few feet and inspected the repairs. “This is truly a terrible boat.”

  I laughed.

  “Hey!” Fearnan sounded insulted. “It’s floating, isn’t it?”

  “Indeed, it is,” I said, trying to placate him. The last thing we needed was a pissed-off captain.

  Slowly, the four mermaids swam away from the boat, letting it rest more naturally in the water. It floated at normal level, and I grinned. “Thank you. You saved us.”

  Merodia saluted. “Where are you going?”

  “To the Corryvreckan whirlpool.”

  She grimaced, and the mermaids around her mimicked the motion. “Are you sure you want to go there?”

  “We don’t have a choice.”

  “No, I suppose you don’t, if you’re desperate enough to cross this sea.”

  “Any advice?” I asked.

  “Don’t try to hold on,” she said. “You can’t. Just let it take you.”

  “Sounds like fun.” Lachlan’s tone was deadpan.

  A dire chuckle escaped me. “Anything else?”

  “When you reach the other end, be worthy,” she said.

  “Be worthy?”

  “You’ll figure it out.” She waved. “We must go now. The air isn’t good for us.”

  “Thank you again!” I waved, but she was already gone, disappearing below the surface.

  Her friends departed, too, and the sea lay quiet.

  “I must say, you’re handling this better than I expected,” Fearnan said.

  “We’re not there yet,” Lachlan said.

  “True enough.” He turned to head back to the wheelhouse. “Let’s get moving. That seaweed caulking won’t hold for long, and I’d like to get this old girl back to port.”

  I was tempted to explain to him that boats were things, not women, nautical tradition be damned, but I shut my mouth. He cranked the engine, and we powered on.