Page 2 of Chasing Tail
Chapter 2
The mermaids, sirens, and sea witches came to my aid to sink the ship when I sent out the sonic pulse, but that was about all they did. That was enough for them. It would never be enough for me. That ship was part of a bigger problem. The druid king deliberately broke our peace to hunt here. They weren’t just after sharks, or they wouldn’t have mutilated Seira.
She couldn’t have brought down their ship alone, nor could she have called for help out of the water. They didn’t care about us knowing they had been there, or they wouldn’t have filled the water with blood. They could have held her in the boat, sailed to safety, and released her, but I just had this feeling they were hoping to catch one of us.
No one had my back on this. My parents loved my sister just as much as I did, but they didn’t want to wage war on the druid king. Everyone seemed content to post sentries and sink any new ships that were sent. That wasn’t our way.
Growing up, one of my favorite stories was about this brave mermaid who battled against a sea witch who had gone wrong. The sea witch turned noble sharks and whales into horrific monsters and used them to attack the mermaids. It was a lot like this situation. Everyone was so busy fighting off the sea monsters she was sending, no one was focusing on the source.
She took it upon herself to swim away and escape. Sea witches were cunning and dangerous even when they hadn’t gone insane. They lived in caves in the ocean, and they made damned sure no one was getting inside unless they knew about it.
The mermaid watched and waited. She played the long game. She outsmarted the sea witch and killed her. Mermaids and sirens stopped getting slaughtered, and sharks and whales went back to being revered instead of being turned into monstrosities.
I loved that story. I always tried to get Seira more interested in tales of mermaid heroics over those sunken ships, but she had always been a dreamer. Seira was more interested in the unknown, no matter how many times I tried to tell her how dangerous those people were.
I was dangerous too. I paid attention in school. I learned my history, and I learned how to fight. I knewallabout what went down when they were negotiating keeping boats out of our home. The sea council was usually immensely shrewd. They prepared for this exact scenario and kept the fact that we could have legs and attack them on land a secret. Everything was done from the sea before.
The entire point of having that negotiation in the middle of the ocean was that the council knew that eventually, some idiot would break the arrangement, and they were going to be smart about it. Everything they had taught me about land-dwellers was that they were greedy. I’d seen their ships.
Someone would be willing to risk it for something pretty. The person responsible wouldn’t set foot in my home in a wooden ship we could easily sink. If someone were evil enough to do what I saw, they would have no problem giving someone whatever they desired to get them to take the risk.
I had nothing left to lose. I couldn’t protect my sister, but I was absolutely not going to witness another massacre like that again when I could stop it by killing the druid king as messily as possible. Sometimes, an example needed to be made.
The council was against me. My parents were against me. A good bit of the sea folk was. But not everyone. My sister touched a lot of lives. She wasn’t on the council, but one of the sea witches thought we should attack them on land. I could use that.
The discussion was getting heated because I wasn’t backing down from this. Finally, they had the nerve to dismiss me and tell me to cool off. I kicked up the sand as I swam off in a huff. The sea witch propelled her tentacles and followed me. I had at least one ally here.
Taron had been hiding behind a massive piece of coral. Poor Taron. He was a great white shark around my age. He avoided the net and the slaughter, but he lost people too. But he was a friend, and he always looked out for Seira. Sometimes, he patrolled when we were at the ship graveyard if she was with me, even if there wasn’t any blood.
I jerked my head to indicate he should follow me. Talora was still following. Out of all the sea witches in the ocean, Talora was probably the nicest. She made little trinkets from shells that were enchanted to make you look prettier for Seira all the time. I’d never go to a sea witch for anything serious, but I knew Talora really like Seira, and when revenge was involved, you could generally trust them.
I led both of them to the ship graveyard. It seemed appropriate. This was Seira’s favorite place, and I came here to hunt often. The younger mermaids like to explore out here, but they eventually grew out of their fascination with all this. The older mermaids considered it cursed and avoided the area. That was partly why all the younger mermaids liked to sneak out here. It wasn’t just the unknown. Their parents didn’t want them to come.
I knew we’d be alone here. All the adults were currently being idiots and planning on who would lose sleep patrolling for ships instead of going to the source. Their children were all locked safely inside with their dolphin nannies. Ours had retired because Seira was the youngest and old enough to take care of herself now. If Orabel had still been living with us, she would have smacked Seira with her fin as soon as she caught her sneaking out.
And she would have. I tried sneaking out plenty of times, and Orabel always caught me. It hurt like a beast when she wanted to make a point with her fin.
I settled myself on a rock and draped my tail over it. Talora rested on her tentacles. Her neck gills were flaring in anger. Talora’s skin was usually this lovely pale green, but it was tinged purple in anger. Taron was also pissed. His second row of teeth was out, and he looked ready to eat someone.
“I know you’re going to land, Kishi,”Taron said.“Talora, I know you like to pretend you only make nice magic, but I know you can brew something to make it possible for me to go. We all cared for Seira, but my other friends died, too. Kishi has a better chance of succeeding if she has backup.”
I loved Taron, and Talora had given me no reason to distrust her so far, but sea witches never did anything for free. Sharks were sacred sea beasts. We revered them because they protected us in the water. Unfortunately, they had never been given the ability to walk on land like us. If they were removed from the water long enough, they perished.
I had no doubts a sea witch could brew up something to do just that, but the cost would be high. Talora was motivated because she liked my sister, so I doubtedshewanted much to do it, but all magic came with a price. Taron’s price might be way too much for the revenge he wanted.
“Taron—”I started.
“Wait,”Talora said.“Before you ask me this, you need to know the cost. It’s possible, and it’s been done before. It’s not a potion or a talisman you can take off. It’s permanent. I would have to cut into your tail and insert the magic that way. You could become a land dweller at will, but you could also return to the sea as a shark. But there is a price.”
“Sign me up. That sounds amazing, and I could stop the king of the druids from bringing more boats here.”
That was such a shark thing to say. They weren’t afraid of anything, and they never did business with sea witches. A shark hunted and killed. I thought they had no reason to ask a sea witch for magic. Clearly, I was wrong if Talora knew precisely how to manage this and said it had been done before. Taron had always been headstrong and fierce. I understood he needed this just as much as I did, but he needed the complete picture of what all this came with.
Talora let out this horrible chuckle. Did all sea witches practice their wicked laughs before they went to sleep at night?
“Never do business with a sea witch without asking the price, young shark. What you are asking isn’t natural for sharks. Sea animals who have asked for this magic before do it intending to never return to the sea. I don’t know how the ocean will react when you return home. The council doesn’t want anyone going on land. You could leave with Kishi. The two of you could kill the druid king and stop the ships.
“The council may forgive Kishi for going against their wishes, but the rest of the ocean may view the magic in you as unnatural. As a result, you might not be welcome anywhere in the ocean. The same goes for Kishi. Seira wasn’t the first mermaid obsessed with land dwellers. Likewise, Taron isn’t the first shark asking to go to land.
