Deep Blue (Waterfire Saga, #1)(76)

Neela, looking at the cave floor, nodded.

“Bring it, baby merl!” Ava called out.

“Right between the eyes, Neela,” Becca said.

“Focus, drag?,” Magdalena said.

Neela picked her head up. She fixed her gaze on the X, and started to sing.

I summon to me

rays of light

And make of them

a weapon bright….

As she did, light leapt toward her from the room’s lava globes. She caught it and whirled it into a ball, just as she always did when casting a fragor lux. But this time, she made the ball smaller, tighter, and harder. Just as Magdalena had taught her.

Magic, help me

Fight the dark,

Guide this missile

To its mark.

With a loud cry, she launched the frag as hard and fast as she could. It hit the wall with an explosive impact. Everyone ducked as shattered rock flew through the water. When the silt settled, there was nothing but a deep hole where Abbadon’s head had been.

“Excellent!” Magdalena shouted. “Well done!”

“That was amazing!” Becca said.

Neela smiled. A bright gush of blood burst from her nose.

“Neela!” Serafina cried. She swam to her friend, pulled the cloth from her pocket, and pressed it to her nose. “That’s it. You’re done,” she said. “The magic is supposed to explode Abbadon’s head, not your own. Come and sit down.”

As she watched Neela pinch her nose, Sera thought how right Vr?ja had been—they were stronger when they were together. But their new powers took a toll. Headaches and nosebleeds were only part of it. The hard training they did together also gave them bruises and cramps. Ava had been sick to her stomach several times. Ling’s broken wrist started paining her fiercely. They were all exhausted. Magdalena, who would become the next obar?ie, was helping them develop the powers passed down by their mage ancestors, and teaching them some old Romanian spells of the Iele. There was much they had to learn if they were going to fight Abbadon and too little time in which to learn it. Magdalena didn’t give them many breaks.

“Becca, you’re up next,” she said now. “Sing a good strong fl?c?ri spell. Call up some wrasse-kicking waterfire.”

Becca rose and swam to the other end of the cave. She positioned herself so that she was floating just inches off the cave floor, then began to songcast.

Whirl around me

Like a gyre,

This I ask you,

Ancient fire.

Faint, flickering fingers of waterfire snaked up out of the ground in a circle around her, summoned from the earth’s molten core.

Magdalena snorted. “You call that waterfire? Those flames couldn’t heat a teapot. You’re. Not. Focusing. You have to be able to call the fire every time you need it. What happens if Abbadon’s advancing on you and you can’t make the fire come? You die. Do it again,” she said.

Becca took a deep breath and started over. Her voice was louder now, and more forceful.

Whirl around me

Like a gyre,

This I ask you,

Ancient fire.

Hot blue flames,

Throw your heat,

Cause my enemy

To retreat.

As the last note left her lips, there was a loud whoosh. The waterfire shot up in a roiling orange column all the way to the top of the cave. Becca was lost inside it.

Magdalena cupped her hands around her mouth. “Becca? Becca, can you hear me? DIAL IT BACK!” she shouted.

All at once, the fire collapsed, its flames sinking back into the earth. Becca was still floating slightly off the ground. She looked dazed. Her curls were singed. Her dress was scorched. She’d burst a small blood vessel near one eye.

“Your powers grow by the hour,” Magdalena said. “Unfortunately, your mastery of them does not.”

“She needs more time. We all do,” Serafina said.

“You don’t have it. And I can’t give it to you. What I can give you is help channeling your magic, if you want it,” Magdalena said crisply. “Ava, you’re next! I want you to cast an ochi just like you did yesterday. I want you to hold it and then go right into a convoca, so you can show it to the others. Do you think you can do it?”

Ava nodded.

Serafina knew the ochi was a hard spell to cast. It was what the Iele used to watch Abbadon. It required that a gandac, or bug, be planted near the person or thing the songcaster wished to observe in order to catch the spell and hold it there. Shells, with their ability to capture sound, worked best. They’d all tried casting ochis. Serafina had only been able to see around a corner. Ling had been able to see into Vr?ja’s study. The obar?ie had looked up from her desk, amused, and waved. Neela and Becca had seen the Malacostraca.

Ava had been able to see Abbadon by using the same gandac the Iele used—a shell cast of gold that Sycorax had once worn on a chain around her neck. Generations ago, Abbadon had slashed at Sycorax through the bars of the gate, mortally wounding her. His claws had caught her necklace and ripped it off. As it sank through the water, its chain got tangled in one of the crossbars at the bottom of the gate. It hung there still, glazed with ice, unnoticed by the monster.

Today Ava had only been able to hold her vision of Abbadon for about thirty seconds, but Magdalena was amazed she’d done it at all.

As hard as an ochi was, a convoca, or summoning spell, was even more difficult. It was what Vr?ja herself had cast to call them here. Magdalena wanted them all to be able to learn it, because it could be used not only for summoning people, but also for communicating with them.