Deep Blue (Waterfire Saga, #1)(69)

“Baba Vr?ja, why us?” Serafina asked. “Why have you summoned us, six teenage merls, to kill Abbadon? Why not emperors or admirals or commanders with their soldiers? Why not the waters’ most powerful mages?”

Vr?ja looked at them each in turn, then said, “You are the most powerful mages. There have been none as powerful in four thousand years. Not since the Six Who Ruled.”

“Oooooo-kay. I thought you were nuts. Now I know you are,” Astrid said.

“One of you knows this to be true. One of you sees it,” said Vr?ja.

The mermaids looked at each other. They all wore confused expressions except for Ava, who was nodding.

“Do you see something, Ava?” Serafina asked. “What is it?”

“I don’t know why I didn’t see it before,” Ava said.

“See what?” Astrid said. “No one here’s a canta magus. This is crazy!”

“No, it’s not,” Ava said. “It makes perfect sense. There were six. There are six. Six of them, six of us.”

Becca’s eyebrows shot up. “Wait, you’re saying…no way, Ava. It can’t be.”

“But it is,” Vr?ja said. “You six are the direct descendants of the six greatest mages who ever lived. Heiresses to their powers. Merrow, Orfeo, Sycorax, Navi, Pyrrha, Nyx…The Six Who Ruled live on inside each of you.”





ASTRID BLINKED.

Ava’s jaw dropped.

Becca and Ling shook their heads.

Neela turned bright blue.

Serafina spoke.

“Baba Vr?ja, how can we be heiresses to the powers of the greatest mages who ever lived? It doesn’t make sense. Astrid’s right—we’d all be canta magi with perfect voices.”

Vr?ja smiled. “You forget the canta magi are mer, and merpeople’s powers are in their voices. The goddess Neria made it so when she transformed the Atlanteans. She strengthened our voices so they would carry in water. But Merrow and her fellow mages—your ancestors—were born human. Human magic takes different forms. Some of your powers may, too. The abilities you demonstrated while fighting Abbadon certainly suggest they do. Neela and Becca cast songspells against Abbadon. Ling chanted. But you didn’t sing, Serafina. Neither did Astrid or Ava. Your powers may be a mix of your mage ancestors’ human magic and your own sea magic.”

“Who’s descended from whom?” Ava asked. “Serafina’s descended from Merrow, of course, but what about the rest of us?”

“A very good question,” Vr?ja said. “Never before have six direct descendants been of the same age at the same time—just as the original six were.” She walked toward Serafina and put her hands on her shoulders. “As you said, Ava, Serafina is the daughter of Merrow. She was a great leader—brave and just. And a very powerful mage. Her greatest power, however, was love.”

“Love?” Astrid scoffed. “How is that a power?”

“Nothing is more powerful than love,” Vr?ja said.

“Oh, no? How about a JK-67 lava-bomb launcher?”

“You have much to learn,” Vr?ja said to Astrid. “Even your lava-bomb launcher could not have saved us today. Only Serafina’s quick thinking could. She would have sacrificed herself for all of you. A willingness to lay down one’s life for others is born of love.”

“Or stupidity,” Astrid said.

It was Neela’s turn next.

“One who holds the light,” Vr?ja said to her. “You are the daughter of Navi. She was a wealthy woman who had come to Atlantis from the land we now call India. Kind and good-hearted, she used her riches to build hospitals, orphanages, and homes for the poor. It was said she could hold light in her hands, as well as her heart. She could pull down light from the moon and stars, and like them, she gave her people hope in their darkest hours.”

Neela looked doubtful. “Baba Vr?ja, I don’t know how much of Navi’s power I’ve inherited. I mean, sometimes I can cast a decent frag, other times I can barely get a bunch of moon jellies to light up.”

“There’s an explanation for that. I believe that your powers—and those of your friends—strengthen when you’re in proximity to one another,” Vr?ja said. “How do you think you and Serafina managed to flee into the looking glass at the duca’s palazzo? There are canta magi who can’t do that.”

“You may be right,” Neela said. “My songspells are always better when I’m around Sera.”

Vr?ja raised an eyebrow. “I may be right?” she said. “Try to do again what you did in the Incantarium.”

Neela looked around self-consciously. She took a deep breath and sang a fragor lux spell. This time, the light bomb she whirled across the room took a chunk out of the wall.

“Whoa,” she whispered, wide-eyed. “How did that…how did I…”

“Magic begets magic,” Vr?ja said.

Becca was next.

“One with spirit sure and strong. Just like your ancestor Pyrrha,” Vr?ja said to her. “She was a brilliant military commander—one of the greatest. She came from the shores of Atlantica. You are like her.”

“That can’t be right,” Becca said. “I’m just a student. With an after-school job at Baudel’s. I plan to major in business when I go to college so I can open my own shop one day. I have a lot of ideas for songpearls, but I don’t know a thing about soldiering.”