The Sea Witch (The Era of Villains Book 1) (15 page)

“
I
just want her to be healthy,” said Serena, scooping the baby
off her bed of ocean flowers and kissing her cheek.

“
Can
I hold her?” said Hazel, an uncertain, timid quiver in her
voice.

Serena
smiled and handed Maren to Hazel. Hazel held her out at first, hands
under the baby’s arms, unsure of what to do and afraid the
baby would begin to cry. Maren just gazed back at Hazel with curious
eyes, and Hazel slowly brought her towards her chest. Maren snuggled
her head into Hazel’s neck. Her dark tuft of brown hair was
soft and fine. Hazel smiled and nuzzled Maren back.

Maren
remained Hazel’s favorite niece. Serena guessed it had
something to do with the fact that Maren had no magical powers, and
Moira wrote her off quickly, paying no attention to her. Though
three of Serena’s five children had no powers, Maren was the
first, and Hazel spent many hours alone with her, babysitting while
Serena fulfilled her royal duties.

Curiously,
Serena’s children all came almost exactly one year apart, all
born in April. All five were girls. After Maren came Celine. She
inherited her father’s golden hair and her grandmother’s
black tail. She displayed magical ability at only two months old.
Maren, only a little over a year old, had jabbed at Celine with a
curious finger and accidentally poked her in the eye. Celine had let
out a terrible shrieking cry, and Maren had been sent zooming across
the room, a trail of bubbles behind her, right into Serena, who had
let out a soft “oof” from the force. Serena had had two
crying babies on her hands at that point, but still, a smile lit up
her face.
Mother will be happy
,
she had thought.

Next came
Fiona. She was the goofball of the group, and Triton nicknamed her
“my little clown fish.” She had light brown hair and a
dark blue tail, and she was always doing flips down the hallways,
her giggles echoing off the stone. She had no magical power, and
whenever Moira made a backhanded remark about it, Triton always
said, “There was no room for magic when she was made. She’s
all filled up with laughter,” which always won him a smile
from both Fiona and Serena. Though Triton would never admit it,
Fiona was his favorite. And Moira’s not-so-subtle comments
about three of their children’s lack of magical ability, such
as “I suppose she could marry a wealthy man” or “What
a shame that she can’t relate to Celine and Ariana. She’ll
always be a tail length behind them,” ensured that Triton
never really warmed to his mother-in-law, much to Serena’s
disappointment. Whenever Moira made such comments, Serena would
scowl and say, “Mother,” in a dangerous undertone, and
Moira would smile and act like she had no idea what she’d done
wrong.

Ariana
was the fourth. She had Moira’s ink-black hair, a long,
gorgeous lavender tail, and Triton’s deep-blue eyes. Moira
favored her the most, though she took both her and Celine under her
wing.

“
I
worry about what she teaches them,” Triton often said once
they each started magic lessons at age ten. “I’ve caught
them whispering alone together and looking over at their sisters.”

“
Don’t
worry, darling,” Serena always said. “I’m always
there when they have lessons. You know I told them and Mother that
there will be no lessons without me present. I watch what she says
to them.”

Their
fifth child, Rona, looked just like her father, but she was a
momma’s girl. She followed Serena around like a seal pup. As
she grew, she took it upon herself to be her mother’s informer
and enforcer, reminding her old sisters of things like, “Mommy
says you should share,” and “Maren, if you don’t
stop pinching Ariana, I’m telling.” Her sisters would
respond with “Tattletale!” and “Who made you the
boss, pipsqueak?” but they usually straightened up because
Rona delivered on her threats.

Serena
doted on them all, but she was also a strict disciplinarian. She was
determined that her children should have manners, but she also
wanted to ensure that they were kind, empathetic, and that they
never felt ashamed of who they were or who they wanted to be. She
encouraged all of their interests. She hired tutors to teach Maren
art and Fiona music. She taught Celine and Ariana to harness their
powers and to use them for the good of others, but she also
encouraged Celine’s love of reading by buying her new books
(written on kelp leaf scrolls or stone tablets) every week, and she
read all of the stories Ariana wrote. Rona loved animals, and so
Serena took her on swims through the reef and the kelp forest
whenever she got the chance, so Rona could see and interact with the
creatures there. She also read her books about animals—their
names, where they lived, what they ate.

Triton
fawned over them all as well. He loved to play with them no matter
their age. He was always starting up games of hide-and-go-seek and
pass the clam. Whenever he came home from helping the citizens or
patrolling the area for a problem-causing shark or killer whale, he
was knocked backwards by five little bodies slamming into his as
they all scrambled to hug him first. They always went to him when
they wanted extra dessert or wanted to go to a sleepover on a school
night because he had a hard time saying no to their big, upturned
eyes and pretty, pouting mouths.

The
children loved both their parents fiercely in return for their
dedication and affection. The merpeople adored the princesses, and
the cheers were deafening whenever they waved from the outer balcony
at events. There were always regular little spats, but mostly,
Serena’s reign was a time of unrivaled peace, inside the
palace and out.

Triton
doted on his wife almost as much as his girls. Each time she bore
him a girl, she worried he would be disappointed. Male heirs were
preferable in royal families, and she seemed incapable of giving him
one. But each time the nurse announced, “It’s a girl,”
Triton bent down to touch his forehead to hers while she lay on the
bed and whispered, “You did wonderful, angel fish.” Then
he would wink and say, “You give the best gifts. And it’s
not even my birthday.”

Every
Saturday, he took Serena out on a swim around the reef. Sometimes,
they met up with Triton’s favorite pod of dolphins, just as
they had on the day he proposed. Other times, they simply spent
their time discussing anything and everything—the girls, the
citizens, each other’s hopes and fears—always hand in
hand. Triton would not cancel these dates for anything. It did not
matter if his advisors pleaded with him to stay and discuss a new
decree, or if his friends wanted to come by to play his favorite
game, Fifty Clams; on Saturday mornings, he was with Serena on a
leisurely swim, free of duties and stress.

Between
time spent helping citizens together, playing with their girls, and
their Saturday morning outings, they were practically inseparable.
She could tell when he was getting angry before he could himself.
His breath would come in short huffs, and he would scratch at his
beard. If it was his advisors who were causing him stress with their
incessant pressing, she would send them all away and rub his
shoulders. If something Moira said was replaying in his brain, she
could tell, and she would take him by the hand to find their
daughters, declaring it was time for a family picnic. Seeing his
daughters laughing and playing together always soothed his worries
about Moira’s influence. The most common reason for his
crankiness, though, was a lack of food. Serena couldn’t help
but laugh every time she had to ask him, “When was the last
time you ate, darling?” He would always wrinkle his brow and
scratch his chin and say, “This morning, I suppose.” He
was always getting wrapped up in something—a task he wished to
complete, a meeting with friends that lasted far longer than
planned—and forgetting to eat. Serena would make a tsk sound
and make her way to the kitchen to ask the cook for something fresh.
Triton always gave her a kiss when she brought it to him.

When he
was feeling particularly happy, he would come up behind her and
tickle her waist until she begged for mercy, gasping out the words
through her laughter and slapping his shoulder. He had a habit of
snatching her up in his arms, one hand around her waist and the
other under her tail, and spinning her around before he kissed her.
If the kids were present, they would usually hold out their arms to
him and ask him to “Twirl me too, daddy,” at least until
they reached the age when such things were uncool.

When
Serena was sad about a spat with Hazel or a disagreement with Moira,
Triton would take her chin in his hand and stroke her cheek with his
thumb and say, “Never mind it, angel fish. You know I think
you’re always right, even when you’re wrong. Now give me
a smile so I can join in.”

So
fifteen years passed. Maren turned fourteen. Triton and Serena
shared an uncountable number of kisses, and yet, the locket always
clasped around Serena’s neck remained unchanged. At first,
Triton had questioned why she never took it off, and after numerous
avoidances, she had finally said, “It’s the only gift my
Mother’s ever given me. It’s…it’s very
special. She gave it to me when I finally decided to embrace my
magic, so I keep it on to remind me that I made the right decision,
and to remind me of what I can do, that I’m unique.”
Triton had still thought it odd that it absolutely never left her
neck, but he never questioned it again. He came to love the little
golden heart. It was a part of her.

Its magic
thrummed against her collarbone, a familiar constant. For the first
five years of her marriage, Serena had fretted over that warm
electric thrum. Each time she had kissed her husband, she had hoped
the sensation would vanish, and each time, she was disappointed. But
how, after all that time and after all the love they had shared,
could it still not be true love? She had wondered this over and over
again. The thought kept her awake at night. Finally, on their fifth
anniversary, she had decided enough was enough. She would fret over
it no longer. Clearly, the sort of “true love” specified
in the spell book did not actually exist. The thought put a bitter
taste in her mouth, but it was better than the terrible pang of
believing Triton still did not actually love her, that it was all
the effect of the love potion. She vowed not to think about it or
worry over it ever again. And yet, she never took the locket off
just to see if anything would change, to see if he loved her without
it. A fear she did not want to admit to herself held her back.

So for
fifteen years, she wore it. For fifteen years, the power inside of
it thrummed on. But that was about to change.

“And then, I
concentrated really hard, and it felt all warm inside my tummy, and
then blue, shiny stuff came out of my hands!” said Ariana,
talking a mile a minute, hardly stopping to breathe.

Ariana had turned ten
a few weeks ago and had started her magic lessons, and she was
telling Triton all about her latest one as the entire family,
including Moira, Hazel, and Casius, swam out to the reef for a
picnic.

“Wow, you’re
learning fast,” said Triton, running a large hand over
Ariana’s head and down her ink-black hair.

“Uh-huh,”
said Ariana with an enthusiastic nod.

“She’s a
natural,” said Serena.

“She takes after
me,” said Moira, adjusting her tiara with dignity. Shortly
after Serena became queen, she had commissioned tiaras made out of
cave crystal for Moira and Hazel. Hazel only wore hers while
performing advisor duties or on special occasions, saying it pulled
her hair, but Moira had placed hers on top of her head with a hungry
look in her eyes, replacing the old, makeshift coral one, and hadn’t
removed it since.

Triton cleared his
throat loudly to cover up a scoff, and Serena hastily changed the
subject. “Who’s up for a game of pass the clam after
lunch, huh?”

All of the younger
girls chimed in with “Me, me, me,” while Maren and
Celine tried to stay cool and indifferent with “Alright”
and “I guess so.”

“I hope you
packed that mollusk dish I like,” said Casius, his red-orange
skin vibrant, reflecting Serena’s own happiness. “I’m
starving, and I’ve been thinking about it since yesterday.”

“It’s in
here, don’t worry,” said Serena, tapping her woven
seaweed basket.

When they reached the
reef, fish of every shape and color popped out of their homes and
swam around them in a rainbow flurry with chants of “The
royals are here!” and “Aren’t the little
princesses just darling? And so beautiful,” and “Good
day to you, your Highnesses.” The fish were giving Casius a
bit of a wide berth until he said, “Don’t worry, lunch
is already packed,” and tapped the basket on Serena’s
arm with a tentacle.

After the fish had
settled down a bit, the family settled in for lunch. But no sooner
had Serena unpacked and handed out everything in her basket, than a
royal guardsman swam up at full speed saying, “King Triton!
King Triton, you must come at once!”

Triton dropped his
food and gripped the Trident. “What is it, soldier?”

The guard took a few
deep, haggard breaths before saying, “There’s been a
shark attack, sire. A young mermaid was attacked not far from the
palace itself. I’ve never known a shark to come that far into
the city. I don’t know how it got past the sentries—must
have snuck in between patrols—but the thing is massive, a
tiger shark.”

“Round up the
guards as quickly as you can,” said Triton. “Have them
gather outside the palace. We’ll go after it in teams.”

“Where is the
mermaid who was attacked?” said Serena.

“Hospital, your
Highness.”

“Sorry, girls,”
said Serena, “picnic’s over. Mommy and Daddy have to go
help, and you can’t stay out here with a rogue shark on the
loose. Mother, Hazel, can you please take the girls to the palace? I
have to swim to the hospital.”

“We’ve got
them,” said Hazel, putting an arm around Maren, “go
ahead.”

— — —

“Blood,”
said Triton, frowning at the red liquid swirling in the salt water
in front of him. “We must be getting close.”

The three soldiers
whom Triton had selected to come with him in the search for the
shark darted after him as he swam on at full speed. All of the
search parties had started together at the place the mermaid had
been attacked, and then they had branched out throughout the city.
Since the attack had happened near the heart of the city, Triton was
desperate to catch the shark before it struck again or made it back
out into Deep Ocean where it would be lost forever, at least until
it decided to come back for a snack.

Thankfully, the blood
was well past most of the residential areas of the city, but it
seemed to be headed for the edge and Deep Ocean. Triton swam at full
speed over a bed of sea grass, rounding a hill that contained an
underwater cave, and suddenly came to a full, abrupt stop. His men
nearly collided with him. The source of the blood was not the shark
after all. A dolphin, one of the pod that Triton and Serena were
friends with, was caught in a thick fisherman’s net. A large,
deep-sea-fishing hook was entangled in the net as well, and it had
gashed the dolphin’s side. The trapped dolphin’s pod was
surrounding him, nudging him gently. When the pod saw him, they
called out, “Your Majesty.” Floating next to the
dolphin, in the midst of the pod, her small, nimble fingers working
at the knots of the net, was a mermaid. She looked around at the
dolphins’ calls. Triton’s heart gave a powerful
BUMP-BUM, and his mouth fell open.

Serena was back in the
cauldron room at the palace, her fingers flying over ingredient
jars. She had managed to stop the injured mermaid’s bleeding
with a spell, but she was rushing to try and make a scale regrowth
potion to bring back to the hospital, even though she was worried
the effort was futile. The mermaid had lost half her tail, and with
the other half in the shark’s belly and with the time that had
already passed, Serena wasn’t very hopeful. She had just
picked up a jar full of fish eyes when the locket shuddered against
her chest. Serena gasped and dropped the jar, which made its slow
descent through the water towards the floor, and clutched the
locket, terror chilling her blood. Something had happened. Something
bad. Had Triton been hurt?

The mermaid looked at
Triton with eyes as green and soft as sea grass, her fingers never
stopping their work on the net. The knot came loose and the dolphin
burst from the net, chirruping happily as his pod cheered. The
mermaid tossed her hair over her shoulder. It was thick and lush and
fell to the middle of her back, and it was a red so vibrant it
almost hurt Triton’s eyes to look at it. She turned to him as
the dolphins celebrated, and he drank her in. Her tail was pure
white. Her shell top was pale pink. Her waist was so slender he
imagined his fingertips would touch if he wrapped his hands around
it. He blinked rapidly, trying to clear his head of such thoughts.

“Thank you,
miss,” said the injured dolphin, whose name, Triton knew, was
Dariel, spinning around her in a circle and rubbing his sides
against her in a sort of hug. “You saved my life. How can I
repay you?”

“Oh, don’t
be silly,” said the mermaid, pulling her green eyes from
Triton’s to look at Dariel with a smile that sent Triton’s
heart thumping erratically again. “Just make sure you get
someone to look at that cut.”

“Come here,
Dariel,” said Triton, finding his voice and puffing out his
chest (for reasons he couldn’t quite explain), “I’ll
fix you up.”

“Thank you, your
Majesty,” said Dariel, swimming up to him.

“When was the
last time you actually called me ‘your Majesty,’
Dariel?”

“Alright then,
Triton,” said Dariel, his voice playful, “fix me up and
be quick about it, why don’t you?”

Triton laughed and was
secretly pleased when the redheaded mermaid flashed him a smile. He
pointed the Trident at Dariel’s wound, a little more
theatrically than necessary, and said in an overly authoritative
voice, “Be healed.” The golden beam shot from the
Trident and the wound knitted together. The mermaid’s smile
turned into a little ‘o’ of awe and delight. The
soldiers with Triton exchanged somewhat wary glances as the mermaid
and Triton studied each other in silence for a moment.

“Thank you for
your assistance, dear mermaid,” said Triton, a large, somewhat
goofy smile on his face despite his attempt at a deep, dignified
tone of voice. “You rescued a good friend of mine. Such
service should be rewarded.”

“Oh,” said
the mermaid, a sweet little laugh behind her voice as she blushed
and tucked her hair behind her ear, her eyes downcast, “it
really was the only decent thing to do. No need to act as if I’m
a hero.”

“At least let me
know your name so I can thank you properly.”

“Athena, your
Majesty,” said the mermaid, her eyes flicking up to Triton’s
crown.

“Just as Dariel
need not address me so, neither should you.”

“Well, are you a
prince or a king here, sire?”

“I am king of
Adamar.”

“Charmed to meet
you, King Triton,” said Athena with a small bow of her head.

Triton resisted the
urge to tell her just to call him ‘Triton’ as Serena’s
face swam in front of his eyes. At the thought of Serena, he felt a
simultaneous rush of love and stab of guilt. But then Athena looked
him in the eye, and the words were out of his mouth before he could
stop them.

“Likewise,
Athena. Perhaps if you will not let me call you a hero, you will at
least return with me to the palace. Since it seems you are not from
here, you must have traveled a long way. You must be tired.”

The happily chirruping
dolphins went silent.

“I couldn’t
intrude.”

“It’s not
an intrusion at all. It’s not every day we get visitors from
other cities.” He almost hesitated before adding, “My
wife and children will all be eager to hear of where you come from.
Where might that be, by the way?”

“Meridia.”

Triton’s head
jerked back in surprise. “You travelled here all the way from
Meridia? Who came with you?”

“No one.”

Triton’s mouth
hung open for the second time since meeting Athena. “You
travelled halfway around the globe by yourself?”

“Well, it’s
not quite halfway around the globe,” said Athena with another
blush, “and I stopped many places on the way: Draven,
Cerulean, Tridian.” When Triton just stared, she rushed on
with a look of slight exasperation. “I wanted to travel!
Nobody ever really travels anymore. Everyone is content to stay in
their own little cities because there’s no pressing need to
find new land, there’s no plague or drought—and I’m
not complaining that there isn’t, of course.” Her blush
deepened and she talked even faster. “But I wanted to see new
things, know what was out there, you know? But everyone I asked to
go with me looked at me like I was crazy for wanting to head out
into Deep Ocean just to ‘see the sites.’ So, I finally
said, ‘I’m getting out of here whether someone comes
with me or not.’ And so I did.”

Now Triton’s
soldiers were open-mouthed as well, and they were looking at Athena
as though she might be unwell.

“You think I’m
insane, don’t you?” said Athena with a sad sigh after a
few moments of silence had passed.

“No, no,”
said Triton, shaking his hand along with his head. “I think
you’re astonishingly brave.”

Athena put a hand over
her mouth as she giggled. “Brave? No, I’m just…curious,
about everything really.”

“Are you curious
about my palace?”

“Yes, actually.”

“Then what are
we waiting for?” said Triton.

One of the soldiers
cleared his throat.

“Your Highness,”
he said nervously, “what about the shark?”

Triton looked at the
soldier like he had no idea was he was talking about. Then he shook
his head a little and said, “Oh, right. I think it’s
pretty obvious it’s not around here. There’s a whole pod
of dolphins right there, if you hadn’t noticed.” Triton
gestured with his hand.

“Of course, your
Highness.”

“Sharks steer
clear of dolphins. If the other groups haven’t caught it yet,
it’s long gone by now. I think it’s high time we return
to the palace and wait for reports from the others.”

“What’s
all this about a shark?” said Athena. She didn’t sound
scared. She was curious. Triton gave her a crooked smile.

“I’ll tell
you all about it on the way,” said Triton, holding out his arm
to Athena.

She looked at it for a
moment, nibbling her lip in way that was part unsure, part
flirtatious, and then wrapped her hand around the inside of his
elbow.

As Athena and Triton
swam off, chatting, the soldiers trailing behind them looking lost,
the dolphins exchanged glances.

“Uh oh,”
said one.

“Did you notice
her hair?” said another.

“How could you
not?”

“I really wish I
hadn’t gotten caught in that net,” said Dariel.

— — —

“It’s
beautiful,” said Athena, her head tilted back as she looked up
in awe at the spiraling balconies from the atrium floor.

As she gazed at the
palace, Triton gazed at her, unable to avert his eyes. He would try
to stop looking at her hair, but his eyes would only fall on her
waist or her tail or her face instead.

“Who is
she
?”
said Moira, brisk and cold, as she and Hazel appeared on the second
floor balcony.

Athena backed up a
little as Moira swam down, her violet eyes as hard as an amethyst.
Hazel followed behind her mother, a peculiar expression on her
face—her eyes narrowed in suspicion, but her right eyebrow
cocked in intrigue.

Triton cleared his
throat and gave his head an almost imperceptible shake. “This
is Athena. She is a traveler from Meridia. I came upon her as I was
hunting for the tiger shark. She saved a dolphin friend of mine, so
I thought I at least owed her room and board for her stay.”

“Room and
board?” said Athena. An exited smile flashed across her face,
but it was wiped away quickly when she caught Moira’s eye. “I
thought I was just here to look.”

“Yes, there are
lots of things here that you can look at but shouldn’t touch,”
said Moira.

Athena blinked hard,
struck dumb, a blush almost as red as her hair rising in her cheeks.