The Seventh Princess

by Matt Larkin

  Ghostfuckers! They weren’t late to the attempt to ambush Mu. They had never been coming. The he’e wanted Hiyoya and Mu to exhaust themselves fighting each other, to waste their lives in battle. And by convincing Queen Latmikaik to go on the offensive, to count on allies they didn’t have, Namaka had only helped the he’e achieve their ends.

  Hiyoya was in even more danger than her village.

  19

  “Namaka was here?” Kam demanded. As soon as he’d awakened, Kamalo had told him the Sea Princess had come and gone. So Kam had rowed straight over to the foreigner’s shitting ship to demand some answers.

  Pasikole nodded. “You just missed her. She … I told her the truth about who hired me and she dove back into the sea, took off in a hurry.”

  Huh. Kam hadn’t actually bothered to ask who had hired Pasikole. He opened his mouth to do so, but Pasikole spoke before he could.

  “The he’e. They’re already the power-behind-the-scenes in many human lands, though most people don’t even realize it.”

  The he’e. What the shit? Stupid octopuses were too damn smart. Sneaky shitters.

  “And she was a mermaid?” he asked. Speaking hurt. Which was total pig shit because Kam liked to talk. Pasikole’s ship had walloped him and it would probably take all shitting day for his injuries to heal. Other villagers would not be so lucky. Too many had died in their pig shit attempt to murder Pasikole.

  A wistful look fell over Pasikole’s face. Like he blamed himself for the attack. Well. Good for him. “She was.”

  “But she came here, in control of herself.”

  “Yes,” Pasikole said, turning to look out over the sea. “I was wondering about that, too. Kam, I … I’ve done too much damage here. I’m going now. Namaka is safe, at least as safe as I can make her.” He turned to look at the sea. “Do you still want me to take you to the Gathering Isle?”

  Kam scratched his beard. Well the whole point of going there had been to convince his mother to save Namaka. But Namaka had come back on her own—as a fish person, but hey, everyone had problems. So what was the point in going there now? Both Mo-O and Kamalo had been convinced his mother wasn’t going to get involved anyway.

  Finally, he shook his head. “Nah. No point anymore. Namaka will have to take care of herself.” He glanced around at Pasikole’s bedraggled crew. “Seems she can do so.” Kam turned to leave, then hesitated. He spun around and pushed Pasikole hard enough to send the man stumbling backward. “You’re not divine. But I’m kind of a bit divine. A bit.” He glared the foreigner. “Just want you to know that. Pigman is watching you, Yellow Hair.”

  Pasikole smiled sadly, and shook his head. “Watch out for her, Kam. I don’t plan to come back.”

  Kam favored the odd man with a grin, then clambered over the side back into his canoe. Maybe things would be better for everyone with the foreigner gone. Still, Kam would miss all the excitement.

  20

  Namaka swam faster than she had ever swum, even using the water to enhance her speed, shooting it out in jets behind her. Pushing herself, she could cover fifteen leagues in an hour, but the jets helped her reach almost twice that. The undersea world blurred around her and still she feared she would arrive too late. If the he’e had betrayed Hiyoya, no help was on the way. And after the battle with Mu had turned against them, the city might be woefully unprepared to face a new threat.

  By the time she neared the city, the sun had set and the city grown dark. The moment she slowed her pace, the sounds of battle assaulted her.

  We’re too late.

  Nyi Rara! Thank Kāne the mermaid princess had awakened. Did she know all that had happened?

  I know. You are growing.

  Not fast enough. Not fast enough to prevent this from happening and not fast enough to put a stop to it now.

  As she entered the city chaos greeted her. Mermaids and mermen struggled with he’e everywhere she turned. Every window, every house seemed to reveal another octopus strangling a mer.

  Namaka darted into one of the houses where a he’e had one arm around each of a mermaid’s arms, four holding her tail still, and two more crushing the poor girl. Wordless rage shrieked from Namaka’s mouth as she sent a jet of water slamming into the he’e. The impact sent both attacker and victim colliding with the house wall. The mermaid’s eyes glazed over, but the he’e almost instantly recovered. Its arms propelled it toward Namaka like a rock hurled from a sling, not swimming so much as launching itself at her.

  Twisting and ducking, she tried to avoid the creature, but it used its arms to alter its momentum so easily it crashed right into her. Before she could even react those arms enwrapped her, constricting, suctioning onto her skin and scales. Namaka tried to scream but the he’e wrapped one arm around her neck, cutting off all air. She grabbed at it and tried to pull it away. Though its skin was soft as velvet the muscle beneath was like rock.

  Already her vision had begun to dim. A chill filled her as she lost control over her limbs. Then her vision cleared and she realized she was prying the arm away, tugging at it with inhuman strength—or rather Nyi Rara was using her body to do so. Pain lanced through her neck as suckers popped free of it. The he’e wrapped other arms around her own, sapping even the mermaid princess’s strength.

  And then the other mermaid, the one she had come to save, collided with them, driving a coral lance through the he’e’s head. The creature shrieked and released her in an instant. The entire house suddenly filled with a thick black ink that stung her eyes and would have made finding her way impossible. She felt the he’e stream past her, heard its wails as it fled.

  Nyi Rara remained in control, however, and guided them out the door. For a moment Namaka rested, letting the mermaid princess manage things. The spirit used Namaka’s hand to massage her throat, to brush over the damage and check its extent.

  You will live.

  Namaka tried to answer, to thank the mermaid, but her voice came out as a gargle. Even that felt like trying to swallow a mouthful of magma.

  Give it a few moments.

  Everything had gone straight to Lua-O-Milu and Namaka hadn’t done a damn thing to stop it. Her powers had pushed the he’e but had managed little else.

  It is an invertebrate.

  What did that mean?

  It has no bones. Throwing it against the wall isn’t going to daze it the way it would a human.

  Great. Good to know. So maybe if she had the powers of a Flame Princess she’d have a weapon against the he’e. But if impact wasn’t going to hurt them, what good could she do with the sea? She needed to find Ake. He was a warrior, a leader. Maybe he would know what to do.

  The general is likely protecting the queen.

  Nyi Rara’s aunt. Was that the point of all this chaos? No, the he’e had to have a bigger goal in mind. Kill Latmikaik and she would only take another host. All the other deaths—and dozens of mer bodies were now floating around the city—could well be a mere distraction. But if the he’e took the Urchin there was no telling what they might accomplish.

  After massaging her throat one last time, Namaka darted for the palace. Merman guards struggled with dozens of he’e in the entry hall. Her heart went out to them, but she had no idea how to help them. The other mermaid had stabbed that thing in the head and it hadn’t died.

  Their brains are not shaped like yours.

  Wonderful. Namaka was starting to dislike octopuses.

  She swam through corridors, avoiding the battles while making her way as quickly as possible toward the great hall. Not that she had any idea what to do when she got there. But she was going to help Ake and Latmikaik somehow. She had to do something. Too many people had died already.

  Shouts echoed from the great hall, sounds of battle and death, though the entryway was obscured by more of that damn ink.

  Namaka braced herself to dart inside the great hall. And then something dropped down on her from the ceiling. The he’e had been all but invisible, its color and texture so perfe
ctly matching that of the walls. In an instant it had pinned her to the ground, arms trapping her tail, wrapping around her wrists.

  “Welcome home, Princess.” The creature’s thick voice ushered from a beak uncomfortably close to her face. His position meant she was looking into its maw and couldn’t see its fathomless black eyes. But this had to be Punga. She knew it was.

  “Ambassador.” Namaka fairly spat the title at him.

  The he’e raised one of its arms—how did he even have a free arm with so many holding her down?—to her face and drew it along her cheek. “One might suspect a Princess on land ought to have remained there.” That arm danced in front of her eyes, a hair’s breadth away, so close she could barely focus on it. And then, with slow inevitability, it lowered around her throat.

  The suckers latched on, but it wasn’t choking her. Not yet. Growing ever tighter. Kāne, the creature was killing her slowly, enjoying her fear at the impending end. Winning was not enough for this ghostfucker—he wanted to break her.

  That, more than anything, filled her with such gut-wrenching loathing that nothing else—not even fear—had room left inside her. These creatures were monsters, vile. And despite being born on Earth, they were less human than even the spirits of the Ghost World like Nyi Rara.

  Lend me your strength.

  Damn right. Namaka jerked against the he’e, pulling with all her might.

  No—feed me your mana. Let it flow through me like a river.

  Namaka had no idea what Nyi Rara meant, or intended, but she gave over fighting Punga. Let him think her resigned to the end. Let him think her broken. She shut herself down, feeling the energy within her, feeling the sea stretching out around her into forever. And she felt Nyi Rara there, waiting. Handing her the power was like clasping hands with an old friend.

  Bitter cold seeped into her core as her strength, her life poured from her, her mana being sucked up by this being inside her. It was like a river—or a waterfall—draining her until she would be nothing but an empty shell.

  Nyi Rara extended one of her fingers toward Punga. Her arm remained bound at the wrist, but around that one finger the sea began to coil, to swirl in a vortex no wider than her single digit. Above her, the he’e turned, perhaps noticing the slight change in pressure around it.

  Nyi Rara released the vortex and it shot forward like a spear hurled by the mightiest warrior. That tiny jet of water, propelled with the force of a geyser, lanced through Punga’s eye and exploded out the other side of his head. His arms began to slack as he reeled, shrieking and pulling away from her.

  The cold in Namaka’s chest made breathing seem to take all her strength. Feeding Nyi Rara her power like that left her dizzy, unable to focus. But the mermaid princess wasn’t done yet. Namaka tried to break the spiritual grip the mermaid had on her, to sever the connection allowing the mermaid to feed on her mana, but it was no use. Nyi Rara shot another water lance at the retreating he’e. This time the creature went limp, though its arms continued to move, as if searching for a way to escape despite multiple holes in its head.

  Gasping, Namaka reached out a hand before her own body gave out. Everything grew dark around her.

  Someone was shaking her awake. Had she been out for a mere moment or for hours?

  General Ake he shook her again. “Princess.”

  Namaka groaned.

  Even I could not get your body to move. Now you know what it feels like to be so drained.

  Aumakuas, yes. Was that what Nyi Rara went through when she tried to control Namaka’s power on her own, without Namaka intentionally feeding her mana? Was there no way they could find a balance, a means through which they might both coexist?

  “What’s happened?” Namaka asked.

  “We’ve begun to drive out the he’e,” Ake said, “but our losses are extreme. I don’t know if we can hold out against another wave.”

  “And the queen?”

  “Safe. But reports indicated the he’e were headed to the gorge.” The gorge? Oh, aumakuas, the Urchin! “Nyi Rara, I cannot leave the queen …” His eyes pleaded. His sister was down there.

  Namaka moaned and dashed toward the chamber with all the speed she could still muster.

  We must reach the Urchin.

  Obviously.

  The he’e are adept in the Art. There is no telling what they could accomplish with the Urchin’s power.

  Kanaloa. Their god-king, the being Namaka’s people worshipped as the god of magic.

  She dashed around halls, choking, gasping, her blurry vision only just beginning to clear. The Urchin had tried to show her this and she had misunderstood. So badly misunderstood everything. It had shown her the he’e and the danger they represented, even shown her Pasikole, trying to help her make the connection. But she had missed it all.

  And what had it shown Nyi Rara? Would the mermaid ever tell her? The conspicuous silence in her mind might well mean the mermaid had also missed the point of her own visions.

  Namaka broke into the gorge chamber only to find four dead mer and as many dead he’e. They had come here, and the mer had given their lives to stop them. But had they succeeded? She darted into the chasm. The bioluminescent algae had changed in hue from green to red, as if somehow reflecting the violence now permeating this once glorious city, this sacred place.

  Hurry, Namaka.

  She was hurrying. Using the water jets to speed herself in these narrow confines would accomplish nothing but slamming her into the chasm walls. Instead, she pushed off wall after wall, at last nearing the Urchin’s chamber.

  The witch lay sprawled at the threshold, eyes empty. Hundreds of sucker-marks covered her throat and face and breasts. Her arms lay twisted at odd angles, clearly broken. The corpses of a pair of he’e floated in the water as well, defiling the Urchin’s sacrosanct chamber.

  Hinaopuhalakoa …

  Namaka shook her head. Milu drag the he’e to her misty bosom and devour their souls. Ake’s sister had given her life to protect this place. Seething pain surged through Namaka’s gut, a cold rage that soured the beauty before her.

  Hands outstretched, she reached toward the he’e corpses and coiled water around them, yanking them out of the Urchin’s room and flinging them back through the gorge. Entering the chamber now, without the witch’s presence, felt like a violation of some primal kapu.

  Instead, all she could think to do was twirl her tail in respect to the Urchin. It sat there, giving no indication of distress at the death of the Lorekeeper. But somehow, Namaka suspected it knew. Sorrow filled her, not only for Hinaopuhalakoa’s loss, but for her own failure to understand what the mythic creature had wanted to show her. Treachery, ambition, and death. Thousands of deaths. She had taken the funerals of her people as literal imagery, but perhaps it had been symbolic of losses here at Hiyoya as well.

  Biting her lip against the wave of self-loathing, she wrapped her arms around the witch’s body and swam from the gorge. Poor Ake. How was she ever going to face him, to break such news to the merman?

  The host was nearing the end of its life as it was.

  The host. The human host had died …

  But Hinaopuhalakoa was merely banished from your world. Ake will see her again when this is over, when we call her soul back into a new host.

  That hardly made her smile. Nyi Rara meant to say when another human girl was sacrificed, taken from Sawaiki, her life stolen so a mermaid could experience the pleasures of Earth for the thousandth time. And deny them to her human host.

  Nyi Rara said nothing, but Namaka could feel her recoil from the accusation. Perhaps it was easier for the spirit to forget that humans, too, had souls and hopes and dreams. Lives that were stolen from them for the use of spirits.

  I thought you loved being a mermaid.

  She did. She was, however, beginning to see not all mer were like Nyi Rara. And even Nyi Rara herself had given no thought to the death of the human host.

  It’s not that simple.

  Namaka sneer
ed as she breached the great circle chamber leading to the gorge. It was exactly that simple. The mer just didn’t want to admit they treated their hosts as disposable. She released the witch’s body. She had to get back to Ake.

  She had only entered the next hall when a tremendous roar reverberated through the entire palace, shaking the very walls and sending a cloud of dust floating through the waters.

  “What the—” Namaka was interrupted by another roar. It was coming from above them.

  Not waiting for an answer, she darted through the corridors to the nearest grotto with an open roof, then swam up to see what the commotion was. A massive shadow passed overhead and Namaka looked up in horror.

  The reptilian creature bore some superficial resemblance to Mo-O-Inanea, but this was a dragon of a whole other magnitude. It had to be near forty paces long, that entire length covered in a ridge of spines, the largest of which reached as tall as a house. It had short, clawed feet like a sea turtle and moved like a giant eel.

  And it was swimming at great speed, not for Hiyoya, but for the Valley Isle.

  It was a creature of myth, a legend of the deep. A taniwha. And somehow, the he’e had summoned it to their aid. Namaka didn’t know how, but it had to be them. Perhaps their god-king had called it. The how didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she catch the monster. It paused briefly to crush some of Hiyoya’s defenders. She arrived in time to see it swallow a merman near whole, biting off the end of his tail in a spray of gore.

  Damn it. Damn the he’e and their cursed taniwha.

  She was going to end this. She summoned the currents around her and launched them at the taniwha, sending an enormous undersea wave crashing into it. The current pushed it over slightly, but didn’t slow it. The beast didn’t even look at her. Like she was beneath its notice. Instead it swam on toward her home, propelling its bulk forward at a speed she could match only if she used those jets of water to accelerate her passage.

  You will use up your strength before the battle begins.