Tempest Reborn (27 page)

Because the Alfar were so weakened by being submerged, it was really the rebels who had come through for us in terms of this mission. Standing next to the Alfar in their underwater SWAT gear were a mixed bag of halflings – all children of underwater folk who had spent enough time on land to reproduce, and then abandoned their progeny when they turned out to be too human to be true water folk.

In other words, they were all like me. In fact, three were selkie halflings. There were also quite a few siren halflings, another breed of water creature that looked mostly human except for a fish tail they could shift into human legs if they wanted. Because supes had to leave off all magic to be most fertile, that meant creatures who could ‘naturally’ appear human, like selkies or sirens, had a better chance of successfully living on land long enough to purge the magic from their systems and meet someone.

One woman, however, had an enterprising kelpie father who’d chosen a blind hermit human for his mate, and there was a kappa halfling whose mother swore she’d been seduced by a man dressed as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. She’d apparently had a crush on Donatello as a child, and she’d been drunk when she’d wandered away from a bonfire on the beach.

These water halflings had volunteered as they were all strong in the water, if mostly human in physiognomy. They also all apparently had combat experience, something that wasn’t dwelt upon since the only people they would have been fighting were the Alfar, as the Sea Code would have prevented anything else.

Basically, the Sea Code was a nice way of saying that the water folk stuck to themselves, and would happily let the rest of the world fuck itself. Water elementals were pretty rare, not least as they had to constantly use their magic to support their watery existence. Breeding didn’t occur often anymore, and when it did, it was usually with humans. Sometimes the progeny would favor the supernatural parent and could live in the sea like a pureblood … other times they didn’t, and they ended up left on land, like me and the other halflings surrounding me that day.

All of which left the few supernaturals in the water with a lot of space in which to play, and no reason to interest themselves in Alfar politics. They kept to themselves, and wouldn’t interfere unless bothered. If the Alfar ever did try to take back the seas, as had happened a few times with particularly megalomaniacal monarchs, then all bets were off. The sea folk would come together and push back the invaders, usually quite easily as they were surrounded by their power source, and then go about their business again when everything was over.

‘We’ve got a good force,’ I said, reiterating my thoughts to Anyan. ‘I don’t see how Morrigan can have any real purebloods. That kappa was definitely a fluke, according to Trill.’ I was referring to the kappa that had kidnapped my own mother. He’d turned against the Sea Code and sided with the Alfar. He was dead now, shot by our own forces on a raid that had saved the other water elementals he’d captured.

‘We’ve got a good batch of halflings, another thing Morrigan isn’t going to have. And we’ve got me, and Trill. She’s weak on land, but believe me, she kicks ass in the water.’

Anyan nodded. ‘I know. It’s just—’

‘I like fighting with you, too,’ I said. And I meant it, much to my surprise. I never really liked fighting, but knowing Anyan was there took the edge off somehow. He always had my back, and that was comforting.

‘You just like watching me handle my mage balls,’ Anyan said, waggling his eyebrows at me. I giggled. I do that when people say ‘balls’ around me, because I’m supermature.

‘Are you gonna be okay, then?’ I said. ‘I don’t have to worry about you getting a snorkel or anything?’

Anyan shook his head. ‘No, ma’am.’

I stood on tiptoe to kiss him just as one of the SWAT-looking Alfar made a gesture over his head. After saying ‘See you soon’ to Anyan, I trotted over to join the others.

Trevor was there, as was our new Daniel, the guy who was our new liaison with the British government. This guy, Rory, was clearly cowed by Trevor, however, and had barely said two words to me. He just nodded at everything that came out of Trevor’s mouth. Rory had been useful in providing our Alfar soldiers with all the info they needed on the sub’s location, and the like. Hiral, meanwhile, had been sent back to Morrigan’s estate to make sure that they went ahead with the attack. Despite the Healer disappearing, he’d reported that they were still gearing up for something big, and that it still looked like the scenario the Healer had described.

Once all of us who were part of the mission were surrounding the Alfar underwater team’s leader, he started barking out orders.

‘We’re dealing with a sub, so never forget that. It’s got humans on board and quite a payload. If that sub explodes, we go with it. And while we care about our own lives, and the people around us, we can assume the Red’s forces don’t.

‘We can also assume this is some kind of trap. Which means assume aggression, but keep your eyes open.

‘In other words, this mission is kill over capture or immobilize. They want a doomsday device, but they’re going to get their doom instead. Understood?’

All heads bobbed. Trill looked positively gleeful at the thought of a little ultraviolence. She had a bloodthirsty side and didn’t often get to show off her water mojo. Personally, I felt a little nauseous. Despite everything, I’d never fancied myself as much of a killer.

The SWAT leader spoke again. ‘We’ve got an update from Hiral. He managed to get on a shuttle that left yesterday from Morrigan’s compound. It arrived in Scotland today, and hit the coast a few hours ago. Hiral counted nine Alfar on the team, and there were at least two water folk that met them on the beach, a kappa and a rusalka.

‘So this should be straightforward, even if they do have something up their sleeve. Our mission is to take out the team attacking the sub, make sure the sub stays untouched, and get out. Understood?’

The Alfar’s own troops, six men in total besides him, all gave a professional shout. The rebel halflings nodded, giving the Alfar’s show of soldierism rolled-eye disdain. I nodded to myself, making my own plans.

I would cover the sub, I’d decided. Push anything back that came near it, and let the others do the killing. It might have been cowardly, but it also seemed smart. I was much better at being repulsive than I was at doling out death.

‘We ready?’ the Alfar shouted rhetorically. His own troops gave an answering shout, which caused the rebels to sigh. We all moved as one down to the beach. Ryu joined me on my other side, looking admittedly rather hot in his tight wetsuit.

Anyan glowered.

‘Jane,’ the barghest said, catching me to him when we’d reached the edge of the water and the waves were lapping at my feet. He lifted me, kissing me thoroughly before setting me down.

Ryu made a point of looking unimpressed.

‘I love you,’ I whispered in the barghest’s ear. ‘Now stop showing off. There’s no competition.’

Anyan rested his forehead against mine. He was still holding me aloft, and it was all very sweet.

‘I love you, too. Don’t worry about killing anyone. Just keep them away from the sub.’

I smiled. ‘That was my plan already, big guy.’

‘Good.’ He turned to Ryu. ‘Take care of her.’

Ryu nodded. I could tell he was enjoying this immensely. It wasn’t often he got a chance to do something the barghest couldn’t. ‘Of course. I’d never let anything happen to her.’

Anyan reverted to glowering, and I turned away from both of them to Trill. My friend had joined us, her large swampcolored eyes looking eagerly out at the sea. The sun reflected wetly off her pearlescent gray skin, and her seaweed hair flowed down her back in a neat queue. She turned to me and gave me a fierce smile.

‘It will be good to fight with you in the water, Jane, where you belong.’

I wasn’t quite as excited at the prospect as Trill was, but I didn’t tell the kelpie that. Instead I held my hand up for a high-five. Her webbed fingers smacked mine and we both grinned, reminding me for the umpteenth time that month how lucky I was to have my friends.

‘Move out!’ the Alfar shouted, and move out we did. The halflings surged forward, meeting their element with eagerness, while the Alfar and his soldiers moved with more deliberation, but no less enthusiasm. I gave the barghest one last squeeze, then trotted forward with Ryu and Trill.

Power swirled around me as we entered the ocean – that of the sea herself but also that of the elementals around me, drawing forth and expending energy as we powered through the water. We’d decided to eschew boats for this mission, shooting for maximum surprise. That meant we had about a two-hour swim till we reached our destination.

Once we hit real ocean, the Alfar leader made the gesture we’d all been waiting for, and the halflings, Trill, and I moved forward. We made a sort of V-formation, with two rows. Our first row of real water elementals went first, Trill and I in the lead. Ryu and the Alfar made up the row behind us. Our row cocooned the back row in a bubble and began to tow them forward.

After much arguing and grandstanding earlier that morning, the Alfar had finally agreed that this was the best way to get where we needed to go. I could swim for days without really tiring, I was so symbiotic with the water. The Alfar had limited access to their water channels – they had access to all four elements, but only so much access to each. When they could use multiple elements simultaneously, they were super-powerful. But limited to one, they were pretty average.

Once we had the Alfar in our tow, we could really move. Jetting through the water, after about an hour of swimming, we spotted our goal. A submarine, floating in the deep. We stopped then, watching from a distance for the enemy to show.

Eventually, there was movement on our watery horizon. I could feel their power from here: Alfar, as Hiral had warned, and two much stronger water signatures – the kappa and the rusalka.

I looked around. We had superior numbers, we had laid our own trap, and we had the champion. This should be a piece of cake.

So why did I still feel like we were the ones who had been set up?

Putting on a burst of speed, we catapulted ourselves and our Alfar backup through the water. We had to meet the enemy at a distance from the sub, not least because it and the men in it were so very vulnerable to attack.

Our swimming shapes streaked over our target, and I was the only one who slowed. I took a defensive position floating above the submarine, pushing the rest of my team forward with a strong shove that lent them much-needed distance from the vessel we guarded.

We didn’t want to take down the thing we were trying to protect with ricocheting power.

I watched as our own forces met Morrigan’s in a flurry of magical weaponry and physical muscle. Our halfling water elementals moved with ease through the water, and I could feel them using the tricks Trill had taught me when we’d fought the kappa that had kidnapped my mother. They would try to catch and hold one of the Alfar, keeping the power of the sea away from them until they drowned. It worked on a few; lifeless corpses floated away on the current without a scratch on them. But not all of Morrigan’s troops were so easily killed, and a few of our own forces were similarly weak. We lost at least one of our Alfar to the power-sapping trick before a halfling could save him.

Once the weakest had been weeded out, the real fighting began. Nets and tridents were our halflings’ weapons of choice, created out of magic but just as dangerous as a physical counterpart. Underwater mage balls also began flying, and I carefully spread out shields, catching those that streaked toward the sub. Some were definitely accidental ricochets, but at least a few of Morrigan’s troops kept their eyes on the prize and were trying to target the sub.

As for Trill, she went right for the big prey, moving in on the kappa and the rusalka. The kappa seemed happy to engage with her. The rusalka, however, darted away. He was male, and looked like a Disney version of a merman, but I knew from past experience with his race that he’d have a hollowed-out back. I knew because one of the Healer’s victims had been a rusalka, and this bastard was working for the same forces that had raped and mutilated one of his kin.

If that didn’t make my blood boil.

Unfortunately, the turncoat was also a very good fighter. He pivoted away from the kappa and kelpie, only to be met by one of our half-selkies and a half-siren. All three closed in on each other, power flying. I saw the selkie nearly net the rusalka as the siren made a fierce jab with his glowing trident, but somehow the rusalka managed to dart under the net, grabbing the selkie so that it was her body that met the siren’s thrusting trident. I gasped as the trident cut deep, but the siren was clever. Jerking her whole body forward, and I can only imagine painfully, on her fellow halfling’s trident, she jerked herself away from the enemy. Then the selkie halfling used the trident to dart with her away from the enemy. At a safe distance he stopped to pull out the trident, and I could feel his healing powers as he concentrated on her.

Which left the rusalka free to move.

An Alfar of ours got in his way, but was no match for the rusalka in his element. A quick slash with a weapon that appeared and disappeared in the rusalka’s hands and suddenly the Alfar was minus a head. That meant the rusalka was free to make his way toward his real target … the sub.

I swam forward, putting a burst of power into my sprint to create a nice distance between me and the submarine. Unfortunately, the rusalka did the same. We careened off each other’s shields like a couple of kids playing bumper cars, spinning through the water in arbitrary directions – me back toward the sub and him up toward the surface of the water.

When I got my sea legs back, giving my head a firm shake to clear it, I darted back toward my enemy. This time I didn’t get very far, however, and I was very aware of the vulnerable hull of the submarine scant yards behind me.

The rusalka wasn’t fucking around, either. A weapon flashed in his hand, and as it came slashing at my face, I solidified my shields just in time to match it, even as I pulled the labrys. It floated in my hand with no weight whatsoever, like a good magical weapon, lighting up under our attack. I slashed back at the rusalka, only my weapon carved through his shields like they were butter. His eyes went wide as he swam hurriedly backward. Then, undoubtedly realizing I wasn’t such easy pickings, he focused behind me and took off toward the sub.