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V ahly followed Lilia and her cohort Yenn into the deep water on the outskirts of Tidehame. Everything looked different through these sea folk eyes. A bank of black seaweed shimmered like a dragon’s hoard below them.

“What is that?”

“Blackgold seaweed,” Lilia answered kicking her legs to rotate quickly, glancing at the sparkling growth before continuing onward.

“It’s beautiful.”

Yenn threw Vahly a nice smile. “Soon we’ll pass a stretch of coral that grows in every color of the rainbow, and you should see the veil fish there. The queen collects them to live in her courtyard.”

The water was cool and smooth as it flowed over Vahly’s limbs and face.

Her breathing had regulated to the point where she wasn’t worried about suffocating every other minute, and she was beginning to appreciate the sea’s treasures.

She really did want to help these good sea folk retain their home.

She couldn’t imagine destroying the dark beauty here.

“We need a way to recognize rebels from the air. During the fight to come,” she said. “To avoid friendly fire.”

Lilia chewed her lip as she swam next to Vahly. “Perhaps we can dye our spears blue with squid ink?”

“That might work. We’ll hold on blue and attack on red. Do you think this ink of yours will last long enough?”

“If we spell it so,” Yenn said, eyes on a shark in the distance. Thankfully, it appeared to be headed away from them.

“But that will use more of your power, won’t it? You should make sure to visit your kynd’s Blackwater well soon,” Vahly said.

“We will.” Lilia switched her grip on her spear. “I have a set time to visit once my rebels have spread the word.”

“What are they communicating?”

“We are trying to persuade more of our folk to join the revolution and to rebel in their own ways.”

Vahly’s heart lifted. “I hope it works. We’ll need all the help we can get.”

“Not if we get this oaken sword back,” Yenn said. “With that thing, you’ll be unstoppable.”

“I wish, but no. I can be knocked from my gryphon or hit with a spear just as anyone else.”

Yenn shrugged. “I have a lot of faith in you.”

“Thanks. Oh, one more thing, General Lilia. I will do my best to attack during the brightest time of day to hinder Astraea’s warriors’ vision. Is there anything you can do to prepare yourselves for the harsh light and give yourselves an advantage?”

Lilia’s forehead wrinkled, and she blinked. “Yenn, any ideas?”

“Maybe we could plaster kollódis leaves across our eyes, leaving small slits so that less light passes into our eyes?”

With a nod, Lilia agreed. “Those leaves will adhere…I think that’s the dragon word to use. They will adhere to our flesh. Stick. They will stick.”

“Smart. That might actually work,” Vahly said, trying to focus on this problem rather than the fear that Astraea was about to swim out of every shelf of rock and coral they swam past.

“Watch out for the breaker fish,” Yenn said, grabbing Vahly’s arm and urging her deeper as a school of massive silver creatures swam overhead. Another group of fish swam behind them, emerald and thin. “And of course the grassfish are out today. Annoying things.”

Vahly started to ask what was annoying about them when a new, slightly colder current rippled across their path.

Lilia held out a hand to stop them. “Try the spell here, Queen Vahly.” Her head turned as she watched the water, presumably making certain no one surprised them here.

Vahly envisioned the oaken sword and repeated the spell. Sea magic rushed beside her ears, and its power hummed through her chest, a strange cousin to the feel of earth magic.

Then there was a sharp tug on her ribcage.

She gripped her shirt. “I feel something.”

Yenn nodded. “It’s working. Say it again. It will come.”

Vahly’s lips curled around the magic in the spell, and the sensation in her chest increased in intensity, almost to the point of pain. Without thinking, she took off in the direction the spellwork wanted her to go, just as she’d done on land when following her earth magic.

“Wait!” Lilia was soon swimming beside her, eyes wide. “What are you doing? You’re swimming in the wrong direction.”

“This is the way the spell is leading me.”

“No,” Yenn said, “that’s not how it works. The weapon comes to you.”

Lilia took Vahly’s arm. Her grip was incredibly strong. “And I’m certain Astraea has the weapon at álikos Castle. You’re headed for the middle of nowhere.”

Vahly shook her off, her skin feeling too tight. “I have to do this. This… It’s painful.” She pressed a hand to her side where the pull was most intense.

Lilia and Yenn exchanged a look, then Lilia spoke. “Then we’ll follow it. Perhaps magic does indeed work differently for the Earth Queen.”

Vahly sped off as quickly as she could toward black water lit only by faintly glowing fish the size of a thumb. Lilia whispered a spell over her spear. Magic shushed alongside them, pulling Vahly into a faster pace but reducing the effort required to swim.

Yenn looked past Vahly at Lilia. “We’re almost to Scar Chasm.”

Lilia twisted. “I don’t like this.”

Vahly felt nauseated at the incredible power of the pull inside her. “I can’t stop. Unless you lash me to something. It’s too much.” She sucked a breath from the water. If she’d been on land, she’d have been covered in sweat.

They arrived at what Yenn had called Scar Chasm with its glowing shelled creatures and narrow passage.

Memories assaulted Vahly. This was where Ryton had brought her to hide her until he had figured out what he wanted to do with her.

This was where she had met Astraea face-to-face for the first time.

The absolute darkness yawning from the depths of the chasm spread a layer of ice over Vahly’s skin.

“My…my original steel sword is down there. Ryton threw it into the depths.”

Yenn rattled off something in their sea language, and Lilia answered, then turned to Vahly. “I’ll escort you down there. Yenn will stay here.”

Vahly could only nod, the pressure was so painful.

She swam quickly toward the deep water, Lilia slipping past to lead in the narrow passageway.

Soon, Vahly couldn’t see her hand in front of her face.

She looked up, or what she hoped was up, and saw the flicker of tiny lights.

Or it could’ve only been in her mind. And still they swam.

A chill spread through the water as they traveled deeper, and the water set heavy hands on Vahly’s head, back, and limbs.

If she’d been in her human form, she’d have been crushed at this depth.

Heart tripping over faster beats, she focused on moving her arms and legs, on listening for the rush of magic that guided her.

“Can you still see?” Vahly assumed since Lilia was born to this, she had better vision in the dark water.

“Not much.”

Vahly felt Lilia drift to her side.

“Let the magic lead you,” Lilia said.

But this spell didn’t feel like proper magic, like the power she felt on land or even when she had last been under the sea. This painful tug was rough, unrelenting. She didn’t want to say it out loud, but she felt like somehow, someway, she’d been tricked.

“We’re approaching the bottom,” Lilia said.

Vahly jumped at her voice. Lilia took her arm, and they righted themselves so they were standing, feet on the deadly cold ocean floor.

Vahly bent to feel around the bedrock. Her fingers touched on small rocks, drifted through piles of sand, and discovered the hard edge of the chasm’s walls, but she couldn’t find the source of the pain in her chest.

Swallowing, she tried to look up. Not even those specks of light were visible anymore.

Utter darkness had enveloped them in its icy shroud.

Magic surged through her, and she lunged forward, foot sliding until she stumbled.

She put her hands out to catch herself, a very land kynd type of movement that didn’t do much down there, and her fingers touched something hot.

She pulled back, but the magic punched her ribs, and she reached out for the object.

“I found something.” Lilia’s hand was light on her back, a support.

Vahly continued delicately feeling out the object.

She touched what she thought might be a sword’s hilt, but then the water directly around the object grew too hot for her to handle, and she yanked her hand away, hissing.

The magic pushed at her, and she nearly put her hand back into the incredibly hot water spinning around the object.

“Tell me what’s going on,” Lilia asked, her voice tight and low.

“I think this is the oaken sword. But there is an eddy of hot water spinning around it. I can’t touch it but the magic…it demands that I grab it.” She gritted her teeth so hard she feared her jaw would crack. “The pain…Lilia, any ideas?”

Lilia was snarling in the sea folk language.

“My queen. Such a horrible creature. I’m so sorry.

I swear to you that we are not all so evil.

Astraea has put a binding on the oaken sword.

She has bound you to it. She must have taken something of yours to work this magic.

Perhaps a hair from your head or a bit of your flesh under her nail. ”

“It’s possible, I guess. We were close on the shore when I was questioning her. How do we break the binding?”

“I don’t have any idea. The Watcher would know.”

“Where is your Seer?”

“She was with us at the rift, but she went missing. I fear Astraea’s guards found her.”

“Well, that isn’t the answer I was hoping for, Lilia.” Vahly coughed or whatever it was down here. It felt much like coughing but also a bit like vomiting. Stones and Blackwater, if she didn’t plunge her hand back into that boiling water, she was going to go mad.

Lilia gripped her wrist. “I can scent your desperation in the water. Don’t reach your hand in there.”

“I can stand the heat for a minute.”

“The water will most likely go to a much higher temperature the moment you lock your grip on the sword. I’ve read legends about such bindings and curses.”

“And none of these darling bedtime stories said anything about breaking the magic involved?”

“Our bedtime stories are obviously not as merciful as the land kynd’s versions. We raise our younglings to be fierce. So no.”

“That’s unfortunate, because I’m pretty certain I’m about to die.”

“I have an idea.”

“I’m listening.”

“You grab the sword and shout when you have it. I immediately call up a spell to blast you to the rocky coastline.”

“So when I’m boiling to death in a tempest of cursed water, you’ll dash my body against the rocks. How is this a plan? Did you switch sides?”

“When you touch the land, you can transform. The curse won’t be able to hurt you once you are yourself again.”

“You are guessing.”

“Very much so.”

“I don’t suppose we have another plan hiding down here?”

“No.”

“Well, all right. Wait. Have you tried the spell where you loose someone like an arrow at the coast?”

“I haven’t. But I’ve seen it done.”

“Lovely.”

“It isn’t a difficult spell.”

“What happens if there is a shelf of coral or a shark or Astraea’s warriors happen to get in my way as I’m careening through the water?”

“The spell will drag you around them.”

Vahly swallowed, her ribs shrieking and her heart seizing. “Let’s do it. I can’t take this pain any longer anyway. If we wait, I’m going to put my hand into the cursed water regardless. I can’t withstand it.”

“I’m here. I’m ready. Shout when you have the sword in your hand.”

“There are so many things that could go wrong here.” Vahly breathed out, and bubbles tickled her lips. “One, two, three…”

She thrust her hand into the hot water and gripped the hilt of the oaken sword.