Rise of the Sea Witch

by Stacey Rourke

  Tentacles, long enough to envelop Atlantica whilst offhandedly sinking a passing ship, swam into focus. Quivering suction cups made brief appearances in between each rolling stroke. A bulbous head, ridged and pocked, emerged like a nightmare from the dusky water.

  Rising from his throne, Triton stamped his trident down in an order for the beast to bow before him. Recoiling at the sound, the Kraken’s tentacles shrank back in writhing squiggles. It floated in retreat with a jerk, then a hop. Again, Triton stamped. The tips of the Kraken’s independently moving limbs sunk into the sand as if something that monstrous could possibly burrow out of sight. The one glassy, auburn eye visible to me—twice the size of my head—fixated on my bound frame. Head listing to the side, I tried to decipher the emotion emanating from that bulging eye. Was that … compassion?

  “Beast! Bow before your king!” Triton demanded, his face reddening in a blend of rage and embarrassment.

  The eye of the Kraken seemed to beseech me, begging my understanding.

  Remembering back to Triton and me in the throne room, I thought to give the Olympus Pearl another go—if any of its magic remained. Focusing on the very beast called to kill me, I allowed the fingers of my mind to reach out to his.

  Easy, friend, my mind soothed his. Be at peace. No one here means you harm.

  That large pupil fixed and dilated, pain and anguish radiating from its stare.

  It is I that have been called to harm. His thoughts resounded through me with a force that made my bones rattle. That is what they do. Rulers for centuries have used me to do their vile bidding. I do not wish to hurt you, little mermaid. Yet I fear I have no choice.

  The trumped up merman with the stick is my brother, and I assure you that you most definitely do not have a choice. At this declaration, the Kraken bounded back once again.

  “Guards!” Triton bellowed. “Ready your weapons. This monster shall submit one way or another!”

  Steady, now, I soothed, tipping my head to meet his eye, and I shall tell you a secret.

  The Kraken paused, hovering in his constant wiggling state.

  I am like no other you have infected before, I explained, the confident façade I forced remains my best performance to date. I have powers you couldn’t begin to fathom. Hence our ability for this brief conversation. If anyone could survive your venom, it would be me. With that in mind, I make you a promise. If I do, I shall rise up over all of Atlantica, and we shall seek our vengeance.

  Two revolutions of those freakishly large tentacles and the Kraken positioned himself alongside Triton’s throne. In a gesture that appeared to everyone else as him succumbing to the command of his king, he bowed his gelatinous heap of a body before me. Yes … My Queen.

  With a satisfied nod, Triton stamped his trident down hard enough to crack a chunk off his coral pedestal. My new friend responded to the cue by peeling back its tentacles to expose the beak on his soft under belly.

  Sliding his sword from its holster, Doralious kicked to the beast with a determined posture. The Kraken’s beak creaked open, allowing the Chief Master to scrape the edge of his pointed tongue with the tip of his blade. Pulling back, Doralious held the weapon high. Face set in mask of dutiful resolve, tar-like goo dripping down the sword.

  Closing the distance between us, Doralious balanced the middle of his blade on the back of his wrist to protect the poisonous cargo.

  “No,” I gasped, despite my deep longing to stay strong.

  The soldiers bookending me grabbed my shoulders to hold me steady. Clamping my lips down hard on a threatening whimper, my bulging eyes watched the edge of Doralious’s sword drag across my tricep, slicing the flesh in a bloom of crimson. Sucking water through my teeth, I winced at the white hot rush of pain radiating through my limb as the wound was slathered with the Kraken’s toxic sludge. With each drum of my pulse, the venom snaked through my veins, slithering closer to my heart where it would soon encircle in a lethal embrace.

  Returning his sword to its sheath, Doralious mournful bowed his head. “I am truly sorry, Princess.”

  A nod to his men and the three backed to a safe distance, eyeing me as if the venom could seep through my pores.

  I don’t remember the details of all that followed, only the haunting sensations:

  A sharp pain in my right side, contorting my body at an unnatural angle.

  Joints popped in a chorus of sickening crunches.

  The coppery taste of blood filled my mouth, gagging me.

  My body swelled, straining the limits of my flesh before muscle and tissue began to shred.

  A cloud of black tinged the edges of my vision, my consciousness waning.

  Arms locked akimbo, my head whipped back.

  Every muscle tensed to the point of pain.

  A deafening rip was drowned out by the anguished cry that tore from my chest.

  Head lulling to the side with exhaustion, a choked sob lodged in my throat.

  I could feel nothing from the waist down, and one glance led me to the gruesome discovery of why.

  My tail had exploded in a spray of mutilated scales and dangling hunks of meat.

  Every bone below my pelvis shattered into unrepairable shards.

  “Is this normal?” Triton’s quandary could barely be heard over the incessant roar of my mind.

  Parents shielded their children’s eyes.

  Merfolk heaved at the gruesome display.

  Calypso rose from behind the bone to which she was bound.

  “Beastly venom laced with magic,” she marveled, equal parts awe and reverence drenching her tone. “Peer into the face of your creation and tremble before her.”

  Death’s door flung open, luring me inside. The only thing that prevented me from crossing its tempting threshold was the ursela shell pulsating against my breast bone. Emerald tendrils crept from the shell, enveloping me in a loving cocoon. Two ambitious wisps vined out, targeting the Kraken. They brushed against his tubular cheeks, each caress asking an unspoken question. The Kraken relented, his tentacles falling slack as he bowed down once more. The globe of his eye never shifted from me as the wisps entered through his iris.

  The surge was sudden and jarring.

  Body sizzling with syphoned energy, my only goal became not to die.

  Lips moving in a silent prayer to Mother Ocean, I felt my organs shift in preparation for … something.

  The Kraken sagged, the eye visible to me rolling skyward.

  I wanted to cut the tie, to spare my only ally—and friend—in that square.

  Unfortunately, that decision was not mine.

  Energy, pirated from the Kraken, transformed what was left of my mutilated tail into eight black tentacles which curled and coiled around me.

  Purple suction cups sprouted forth from freshly formed gelatinous flesh.

  Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.

  The Kraken waned, his monstrous head slumping into the sand.

  Meanwhile, I coursed with untapped energy the likes of which I had never felt before. Breaking free my bound arms was now as easy as snapping a rogue thread.

  Trapped in a foreign body, I slumped to the ground in a drained heap. All the while, those outlandish tentacles writhed around me.

  I wanted to cry.

  Wanted to scream.

  Wanted to lash out at anyone and everyone.

  Triton’s voice, resonating through the square, interrupted my building bloodlust. “Doralious, confirm death and retrieve the ursela shell.”

  The shell throbbed against my chest in protest. Protectively, my hand closed around it.

  They had taken so much.

  Tortured me.

  Mutilated me.

  Robbed me of my identity.

  Now … it was my turn.

  T he water around me stirred. Two tentative soldiers followed their king’s orders and approached my slumped form. One used the tip of his sword to sweep my hair aside. The fingers of the other brushed over the back of my neck in his awkward fumbles to unti
e my shell. My upper body remained still as stone, luring the nameless soldiers into a false sense of security. Those simple-minded fools were oblivious to my tentacles slipping up behind them until the wandering appendages twisted around their throats and squeezed tight.

  A slow smile curling over my lips, I pushed off the ocean floor with one unified stroke of my free tentacles.

  “Easy, boys,” I purred to my captives. “Get a lady’s consent before you start the manhandling.”

  A quick pulse and I could have shattered both of their tracheas with ease. As intoxicating a thrill as that would have been, I settled for the slightly more subdued gratification of knocking their skulls together with a dull thunk. Each settled into the sand in a listless heap.

  “Vanessa,” Triton called, trumped up on his own authority, “my many thanks to Mother Ocean for sparing your life. Be her mercy as it may, you must know that the remainder of your sentence can only be banishment from the kingdom ... forever. Without further incident, I need you to hand over the shell and leave the kingdom at once.”

  I’m not even going to pretend I heard a word that prattled from his lips. Raising my head, my attention was diverted by the Kraken who laid utterly still, his large pupil fixed and dilated. He knowingly saved me … and paid with his life.

  “Ursela.”

  That grating tremor found my ears like the sweet serenade of an angelic choir. Eagerly welcoming her long-missed ghastliness, I scoured the crowd for my mother. Upon first glance, all I saw was the same useless wretches who floated helplessly by as I was tortured and dismembered.

  Then, a blink.

  A retrained focus, and the truth was revealed.

  I found her in the sea of faces, putrid and repugnant as ever, beaming up at me with visible pride. Best of all? She hadn’t come alone. Mommy brought an army. Mixed through the throng of mer was every soldier that died on the island of Lemuria. One by one, they clapped their fists over their hearts and bowed before me.

  “Vanessa?” Triton attempted.

  Again, Mother spoke one word in a breathy sigh, “Ursela.”

  The shell pulsed against my chest in an appreciative surge.

  The other apparitions raised their voices with hers in an otherworldly chant:

  “Ursela.”

  “Urselaaaaaa.”

  “Ursssssela.”

  By all lines of reasoning, their blood stained my hands. Still, not one of them moved to condemn or harm me. Instead, they honored the part of me others wished to vanquish.

  “Vanessa!” Triton stamped his trident against his crumbling pedestal, grinding his teeth in agitation. “You will answer me!”

  Gradually, I tipped my head in his direction, glaring up at him with sinister intent. “Vanessa is dead. You can call me … Ursela.”

  The guards surrounding Triton and the perimeter drew their weapons, each assuming a defensive stance.

  Hitching one eyebrow, I admired their adorably pointless posturing.

  “Call yourself what you will,” Triton declared, white knuckling the staff of his trident in his struggle to maintain control, “the directive remains the same. Hand over the shell at once.”

  Ignoring the fact that he had spoken at all, I let my leisurely gaze sweep over the testosterone exuding soldiers. Phantom images only I could see dodged and weaved between them, the dead offering up each merman’s weak point that would bring them down with one strike. A broken rib here. A torn tailfin there. A frequently dislocated shoulder that required little more than a carefully placed tap. The knowledge was a heady tonic of bliss.

  “I despise men who are threatened by a strong woman,” I murmured, biting my lower lip seductively.

  Raising one hand with an elegant roll of my wrist, I simply snapped my fingers. Every soldiers’ sword leapt from their grip, slicing through water in my direction. Four I caught in my tentacles. The others turned on their owners, arching around me in an ominous threat.

  “Vane—”

  One sword wielding tentacle stabbed Triton’s way, its intent strongly implied.

  “Ah, ah, ah,” I warned, with a wag of my forefinger.

  Pressing his lips in a firm white line, the young king swallowed hard. “Ursela,” he corrected. “This spectacle isn’t necessary. This situation can still have a peaceful resolve.”

  Curling one shoulder in, I threw my head back in a loud guffaw. “Peaceful? Is that what you view this evening’s spectacle as? I saw it as a girl being brutalized while an entire kingdom watched. However, it was deemed okay, because she was a villain.”

  Triton rose from his throne, his broad chest swelling. “No one said what happened here was okay, Vanessa.”

  One sword winged through the air, end over end. My magic caught it a mere hair from Triton’s throat.

  “My name,” I snarled through my teeth, “is Ursela. I suggest you remember that.”

  The live soldiers closed in all around me, preparing to take me on in hand-to-tentacle combat. I could see them all without turning, from their raised fists to each waving lock that swayed around their heads. They sought to protect their king. Who would protect them, I wondered.

  “Ursela,” Triton begrudgingly corrected, his Adam’s apple bobbing under the blade’s deadly point, “stand down. No one needs to get hurt. This isn’t you.”

  “Isn’t me?” a ragged scream tore from my throat, hoarse with emotion. “No. It’s who you made me! Your hand sculpted my fate. My apologies if you find your handiwork unsettling.”

  Triton didn’t argue further. Settling back into his throne, he cast a cursory glance to his Chief Master. “Take her down … by any means necessary.”

  “As you command, Majesty,” Doralious snarled. With a mighty battle cry ripping from his chest, he led a swarm of soldiers in their charge. None of them were armed with more than a monsoon of raw adrenaline.

  I let them come. Welcomed them with my arms thrown out wide and a gracious dip of my head.

  “Lose yourself in the darkness,” my mother whispered against my ear, the funk of her breath assaulting my senses.

  My smile widened at the return of her much treasured guidance.

  “What a wondrous idea.” Expelling a potent dose of ink, I retreated into the murky water. Thanking the Kraken trait that allowed me to see without issue, I watched with giddy interest as the soldiers blindly combed the water in search of me.

  Not wanting them to stumble onto their weapons, I whisked those pesky items off to my alchemist parlor with little more than a passing thought. Then, I set to my deliciously fun task. Weaving between the soldiers, I brushed an arm here, grazed a cheek there. I was the unseen ghost whose presence prickled down their spines. This brilliantly maniacal waltz ended when I found myself nose to nose with Doralious. Unlike the others, he didn’t yelp or start in surprise.

  “We were friends once.” Lips pulling from his teeth in disdain, Doralious’s hands balled into fists at his sides. “Do you forget that, witch?”

  One stroke of my tentacles and I swirled around him, causing him to spin to keep up. “We were friends,” I agreed. “Then, you turned on me when I needed an ally the most. Your priority became asserting yourself as the premiere henchmen to the throne by withering my spirit whenever we shared a space.”

  “If I could affect your sensitive soul so easily, you were never equipped for the throne to begin with, you mongrel half-breed!” Shoulders hunched, chin drawn to his chest, he blazed straight for me. One fist pulled back as he swam, committed to the strike.

  I may have stroked his ego a smidgeon by letting him get close. That made it all the more fun when I nonchalantly circled one raised digit.

  Green tendrils sparked.

  Doralious froze, his shape shrinking before me in a swirl of magic. With a devious giggle I watched his muscular body wilt. Skin hardened to coarse leather. Limbs shriveled to nubs. Eyes bulged from their sockets. In mere seconds he was reduced to a polyp on the ocean floor. My very first, and by far the most rewarding …
up to this point anyway.

  Crouching down, I studied him with gleeful appreciation. One tentacle rolled back, poised in warning.

  “Think of this as my favor to Atlantica.” Throwing his own words back at him, I let my hovering appendage fall.

  The decorated soldier met his end with a stomach-turning squish.

  Unfortunately, the ink dissipated right about the time Doralious went crunch. Screams rang out. The panicked masses fled in droves.

  “Yes! Hurry home, children!” I taunted. Noticing the remaining Guardsmen nervously contemplating their own escape, I clucked my tongue against the roof of my mouth. “Tsk, tsk. Not you, boys. I have big plans for you.”

  A rhythmic roll of my fingers and my will snaked out in swirling vines, capturing each soldier where they swam.

  “Ursela, stop!” Triton boomed, injecting himself in a prime position to block further magical fun. “I’m the one you want! Leave these merfolk alone and target your rage at the one deserving of it.”

  “How self-sacrificing, and … kingly,” I sneered, folding my arms in front of me.

  Chest puffed, he towered over me, expelling warm water at my face with every heaving exhale. “You want to kill me? Kill me.” My pulse lurched at his tempting offer. Still, I waited for the hook. An offer that appetizing had to come equipped with one. “I lost my mother, father, and best friend. My sister was all I had left. If you’re telling me that she’s been replaced by this monster, then you can go ahead and end this miserable existence for me. Spare me a lifetime of living with the ghosts of all that have died since this damnable crown was placed on my head! Free my soldiers. Take me inst—”

  His noble declaration morphed into a choked gurgle. One ambitious tentacle seized his throat before I had even made the conscious decision to allow it. Watching the violet hue of twilight steal over his features, I dropped my voice to a husky whisper. “You know nothing of ghosts, little brother.”

  “Finish it,” Triton gasped, his fingernails instinctively digging for freedom from the appendage holding him.