The Mermaids Madness

parted, and cool water flowed from her gills. She tried again, fighting the instinct to drink rather than breathe. Eventually she managed to take another breath of water.
    Her chest felt stiff and heavy. She had an easier time swimming now that she had expelled most of the air from her body. She could still feel a small bubble trapped in her chest. She belched it out and drew a full breath.
    The water tasted like spoiled vegetables. Something to do with the seaweed?
    She pressed her fingers to her gills. Three long gashes stretched along each side of her neck, following the curve of her jawline. She plucked off one of her mirrors and held it out, trying to see the red gills beneath the flaps of skin.
    A soft, two-toned call drew her attention to Morveren, who had grabbed one of the stalks. Thin red fronds clung to her skin. Morveren sang to the plant, a gentle song with a thread of magic woven through the notes. Slowly, the fronds released their grip.
    A tendril of seaweed brushed across Snow’s stomach. She tried to push it aside, but the plant was stiffer than it appeared. A second reached toward her arm.
    Snow replaced her mirror and did her best to mimic Morveren’s song. By the time she mastered the trick of singing underwater, the seaweed had begun to pull her down. But the leaves relaxed as soon as she switched to a lullaby she had heard Danielle sing to Jakob.
    Commanding the plants was actually easier than controlling animals or humans. She grinned like a child as the seaweed fell away.
    She passed Morveren, clearing a path. As they swam deeper, she activated the magic of her choker, surrounding herself in soft, blue-tinged light. She floated in an endless forest of undulating plants, which concealed both sky and seabed. Small yellow fish flitted through the leaves.
    A clump of seaweed looped around her tail. Snow turned her song on the weeds, but nothing happened. Twisting about, Snow saw another tangle of red reaching past her toward Morveren. The leaves and vines twined together, their form almost human.
    Snow grabbed her knife from her belt and slashed at the vines. The figure held its shape, squeezing Snow’s tail while it stretched to grab Morveren. This would be one of the other dangers Morveren had mentioned, then.
    Snow stabbed her blade into the center of the form and flicked a tiny catch on the cross guard. A metal plate in the center of the guard swiveled aside, revealing a small mirror. Snow sang again, using the mirror to carry her song into the heart of her attacker.
    The seaweed shuddered, then relaxed. Leaves began to drift away. The vines Snow had cut before fell through the water.
    Morveren swam down and plunged her hands into the figure from behind. Snow caught a hint of something cold and hungry, and then the seaweed unraveled completely, becoming simple plants again.
    Morveren clasped Snow’s arm, then swam lower.
    Snow continued to sing a path through the seaweed. Twice more they were attacked by the strange figures. Her scales protected her tail, but her arms burned where the leaves cut her skin. Each time she used her knife to enhance her song, stilling the attackers long enough for Morveren to destroy them.
    Eventually the plants began to thin. Snow’s light broke through the forest to illuminate a wrecked ship on the rocks below. Debris covered the seabed: old barrels, a length of chain, even the bones of the former crew. Mollusks covered the ship’s hull. Both masts were broken near the base, and a large gash tore through the port side, near the back.
    The shape and size of the hull marked it as a Lyskaran cargo ship. From the position and rakish angle of the foremast, this ship had to be close to a hundred years old. Nothing grew around the wrecked ship, and as Snow swam closer, she could see where Morveren had set white stones in a ring, a magical fence to keep her plants from devouring her home.
    The water was colder here, and it tasted of silt. Snow followed Morveren through the broken hull into what would have been the main hold.
    Morveren was already racing about like an oversized minnow, shooing away an eel, wiping silt and sand from crude shelves, and inspecting every bit of her former home.
    The lay of the ship meant the starboard side of the hull served as the floor. Shelves made from broken planks lined the walls, nailed into place wherever the structure of the ship was still strong enough to support them. Jars and bowls lined the shelves. Dark algae covered most