The Mermaids Madness

mermaid and rose up on one knee, wrapping an arm around Nilliar’s waist for balance. Her other hand slid along Nilliar’s arm, reaching not for the sword but for the fingers that gripped it. She found the thumb and tugged. The sword clattered to the ground.
    The air spirit attacked them both, driving them past Lirea and toward a window. It meant to throw them both down to the rocks.
    Talia didn’t fight it. Instead, she added her strength to the wind, pushing Nilliar back. With her left hand, she tugged her zaraq whip from her belt. A snap of the wrist launched the weighted line at Lirea, twirling it around her neck.
    Talia twisted, shoving Nilliar through the window. Nilliar tried to grab the edge, but between the wind and Talia’s own weight, her grip wasn’t strong enough.
    “If it’s any consolation, I’ve never had much luck with romance either.” With that, Talia yanked the whip with both hands. Lirea staggered across the floor, and then Talia was tumbling back through the window, dragging the mermaid after her.

    Snow’s vision swam. There was too much magic, too many spells to counter. Three Morverens appeared to float outside of the tower, and she couldn’t begin to count the number of undine fighting Danielle and Varisto. She closed her eyes, calling forth another burst of sunlight from her choker. It was enough to distract the undine, giving her friends a momentary advantage. But there was only so much she could do.
    She could feel Morveren reaching out to the tower, trying to work her way into Lirea’s mind. Morveren was far more skilled than Snow, her touch light as air. One strand at a time, she wove her web around Lirea’s will.
    Snow concentrated on the cup, trying to erect a magical wall to sever Morveren’s connection to Gustan. Without that connection, there should be a very satisfying crunch as Morveren dropped onto the rocks below. But Morveren punched through the wall with ease, widening the cracks between Snow’s imaginary bricks.
    “Power is subservient to skill,” Morveren shouted. She waved a hand, and one of her air spirits broke away. Rocks and sand rained against undine and humans both. The humans took the worst of it, since they couldn’t turn away to protect their faces without exposing themselves to attack.
    “Maybe.” Snow pulled out the green soul jar she had taken from Morveren’s ship. Another few days and she would have figured it out. She was sure of it.
    Snow bit the stopper in her teeth spat it aside. She peered through her lashes at the faint web of Morveren’s magic laced through the inside of the jar. Closing her eyes, she reached into the bottle with one finger, ripping a hole in the bonds that had trapped this soul for over a hundred years. The freed spirit rushed past, feeling like hot velvet over her skin. There was power in that soul, but Snow allowed it to escape.
    Varisto yelled as a rock struck him in the knee. Another glanced off Snow’s forehead, redoubling the pain in her skull and driving her to one knee. Blood trickled down the side of her nose. With a gentle push, she nudged the strands of the jar’s magic, sending them outward like a fisherman casting his line. As soon as those strands touched the air spirit, Snow allowed the spell to collapse back into the bottle, dragging the spirit along.
    The rocks and sand died down. Snow pressed a thumb over the mouth, a crude seal, but effective for the moment.
    Snow could hear Morveren redoubling her efforts to reach Lirea’s mind. Shouts rose from inside the tower. Talia stumbled into the window, fighting a blue-scaled mermaid. Talia twisted, pushing the mermaid through. She fell to the ground with a scream. The drop wasn’t necessarily a fatal one, but the mermaid fell head first. Snow could hear the crack of bones breaking.
    Talia tumbled out the window, clinging to her whip. The other end of the whip was looped around Lirea’s throat. For a moment, it looked as though she would drag Lirea down, but Lirea caught herself. She clutched the windowframe with both hands.
    “Snow!” Danielle slammed her sword down, snapping a merman’s spear and cutting deep into his shoulder. “Help her!”
    Talia braced her feet against the wall and pulled, but Lirea was too strong. Morveren swooped down, drawing a knife. Snow recognized the abalone blade from here, as well as the remnants of broken spells that still clung to the knife like leeches. Talia pushed herself to one side, barely avoiding the