Amanthara is not answering my calls. It's been precisely eight hours since I set a mermaid loose upon the human world—a young, impressionable mermaid—and I've already lost her. I bite my lip as I stalk through the workroom, every available surface littered with potions and half-completed charms.
Bippi sits quietly on a stool, tentacles curled around his body.
"What if she got lost?" I lament to the octopus. "What if she ate something she shouldn't have and is in intestinal distress? What if some petty thief lured her into an alley and raped her?"
"Sina," Bippi says calmly. "There are spells for that."
I cut my wild pacing short to stare at him. Of course. Why didn't I think of that before? I am a mess, that's why. I rake hair from my face and tie it back in a knot at the nape of my neck. My eyes hurt, and my brain feels fuzzy. I've been in the workroom too long.
As always, Bippi is there. "Take a deep breath," he advises. "Seek calm and center yourself. You will see more clearly."
I am eight years old, taken back to our first lessons. I listen to the octopus and slow my breathing, find my center, and gradually, my thoughts untangle.
"Everything is riding on her success," I tell Bippi, calling for a guard. A selkie male appears and I direct him to scour the cellar pool for any scales Amanthara may have left behind. As he leaves, I pull down a wide, flat-bottom scrying bowl from a nearby shelf and find a clear spot on one of the tables. "If this doesn't work, I'm not sure the spires will hold."
After seeing Amanthara off, I gave the selkies the last of my protection spells to slap on the surrounding spires. Now, I am down here, making more.
"There are other methods," Bippi says slowly.
I pause mid-pour; water drips from the ceramic ewer in my hands. "What other methods?"
The octopus sighs, the flaps behind his eyes fluttering. "You can summon the creatures of the deep," he says at last.
I stare at Bippi. Summon kraken and leviathan? I have only been able to make contact with the whales and Bippi believes I can summon the deep-dwellers?
"I thought you were against using sentient creatures for personal gain." As I have been. "What would the Grey God say?"
Bippi sighs again, tentacles rubbing together. "I have grown very fond of you over these last decades, Sina. I cannot see you fall."
My throat tightens, but no tears fall. Bippi has been my friend—in truth, my only friend. "Only as a last resort," I tell him.
Bippi nods.
Swallowing, I finish pouring water into the scrying bowl. The selkie guard returns with bad news: no scales from the mermaid princess.
"I apologize, my queen," he says, bowing.
Well, that just made everything more complicated. "It's all right," I tell him. The selkie nods and returns to his post outside the workroom door. I grab rosemary and sage from a shelf behind me and sprinkle a pinch of each into the bowl. Setting my hands on either side of the bowl, I take a deep breath, drawing the scent of the herbs deep into my lungs.
Clarity for sight; clarity for mind.
I hold an image of Amanthara in my mind's eye and plunge my senses into the scrying bowl. The herbs drift idly across the surface, forming random patterns. Sweat beads on my brow as I concentrate.
The herbs tremble, then spread out to form a circle; a circle within a circle in the bowl. A drop of sweat falls from the tip of my nose as I force the water to bend to my will. A hazy image begins to form in the center and I see what appears to be Amanthara, a brown kerchief tied around her head to hide that pink hair. She's perched on a barrel, talking to someone.
I frown. Talking? She shouldn't be able to talk. The spell was quite specific—a voice for legs. But her mouth is moving—at least I think so; the image drifts in a fog, revealing bits and pieces at will.
More sweat falls into the bowl as I try to move the image around, to discern where in the kingdom she might be. Everything would be easier if I had a lock of hair or a scale to focus the spell, much as I had done long ago with the Krier boy. The picture wobbles in the bowl as if someone takes hold of my hands and shakes the bowl back and forth.
A bright flash emanates from Amanthara's neck, right where the shell should be resting. This ... this isn't right, I frown. Something has altered the spell. I don't know what it is, but I can't leave the mermaid princess out there. I must abandon this plan and try something else, otherwise ...
Kraken and leviathan.
War.
"What is it?" Bippi asks as I pull my head away and unlock my fingers from the bowl's sides.
"She can speak," I tell the octopus as I pour the water into a nearby sink and rinse out the herbs. They flow down the drain, brown and useless, all their magical properties used up. "At least, that's how it looks." I wipe my hands on a towel and describe the flash I saw near Amanthara's neck.
"Someone has tampered with your spell," the octopus confirms. "She needs to be brought back here immediately."
What if Amanthara ran into another witch and somehow asked her to fix her voice? It's common sense to never alter another witch's spell unless you know what you are doing. Even then, it is dangerous—rude, even. The mermaid cannot begin to explain the process through which I went to craft this spell. And who is to say that this theoretical other witch is even comparable in strength to me?
"Yes," I agree and look around the workroom, at all the protection spells that need to be completed and hung up. Can I even do all of this in time? Find Amanthara and return home before the duke brings his deadly new cannons?
"SEA WITCH!"
Bippi and I look at each other. Leonaris's shout echoes throughout the castle, rattling precious vials upon the shelves. He must be using a king conch shell to project his voice.
I roll my eyes toward the ceiling. Grey God preserve me, what more can go wrong today?
"Let's go see what His Majesty wants," I tell Bippi, even though I couldn't give a damn. The black octopus rolls head over tentacles down the table and onto the floor.
"SEA WITCH!"
"I'm coming, you big lug!" I shout, even though he won't probably hear me. Gods above, men are such demanding creatures.
My foot hasn't even touched the floor of the cellar when Leonaris lunges from the pool, jabbing an accusatory finger at me. "Where's my daughter, witch?" His shark-like tail lashes the gleaming blue waters of the pool, sending waves sloshing over the edge.
How I manage to keep a straight face, I'll never know. I look the Sea King dead in the eye and ask, "What do you mean?" My heart beats rapidly in my chest and I struggle to keep breathing normally.
"You know what I mean!" he shouts, slamming the coral-pink king conch shell onto the cellar floor. A sound like a wounded bell echoes throughout the room. It's a testament to the shell's structural integrity that it doesn't immediately shatter upon impact.
"No, Your Majesty, I don't," I reply exasperatingly, hands on hips. "Would you care to—calmly—tell me what the matter is?"
Leonaris glares at me, but slowly, he sinks back into the pool, dragging his king conch towards him. The shell's rounded spines leave thin lines on the floor. Great, how am I going to get that out?
"Amanthara hasn't returned home," he rumbles. "It is past sundown and she hasn't returned." With each word, his anger lessens until what's left is a worried father. I almost feel sorry for him.
"Just past sundown?" I repeat with a lift of my eyebrows. "Why, that's not so bad."
Leonaris's eyes snap and he hammers the king conch on the pool's edge; bits of rock break off and fall into the water. "This is no time for jesting, sea witch. Humans venture further and further into the deep. It is not becoming safe for us."
I know I'm skating on thin ice here, but I lift a hand and wave it around. "She is a teenager, Your Majesty. Did you not stay out late with your friends when you were her age? Did none of her sisters do the same?" I'm not completely informed of merfolk culture, but I know enough to posit that question.
The Sea King frowns, lightning flashing in the crystalline blues of his eyes.
"I'll take that as a 'yes'," I say casually. "I'm certain she'll come home soon. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go back to my workroom. If you didn't know, I have to prepare for a potential assault by the Duke of Bekerhausen."
"If she is not home by the time the natha flowers bloom, I am coming back, sea witch." Glaring at me, Leonaris dives into the pool, splashing water everywhere with a flick of his broad, shark-like tail. I jump back in time to avoid being soaked.
"Well," I tell Bippi, folding my arms to keep my heart from leaping out of my chest. "I better be on my way, then." I'm not sure if Leonaris suspects me in Amanthara's disappearance, or if he is just targeting me out of the fact his youngest daughter likes to spend time up here.
"Indeed," the black octopus agrees, undulating towards the pool and peering into the blue waters. I wait a moment in case the Sea King returns, then I turn and race up the stairs.