Sea Witch

By Kayla E. Green

The world swayed around me like the ocean waves, but I couldn’t feel the water’s calming caress. Pain pounded in my left temple. My eyes refused to focus. I tried to swim, yet I couldn’t lower my arms from over my head. And my tail… where was my tail?

I wiggled my toes, feeling rough wood beneath me. Where was I? How was I taken from my waters? I only had legs out of the Atlantic, and I had taken a solemn vow to protect my people, my sister. How could I protect them above the waves?

In the distance, voices screamed, “Sea witch!”

Like a tidal wave, the memory of the last few hours crashed into my consciousness.

“Dayana, promise you will be careful,” Amani implored, her lower lip trembling. “Promise you will come back to me?”

I playfully rolled my eyes and cupped her cheek with my palm. “Your big sister is a ranking member of the Arawak Guard.” I squeezed her hand. “Everything will be okay.”

Amani kicked her dangling feet at the surface of the water. She held my hand and spun the pearl-studded enchanted cuffs on my wrists—the tools that allowed me to use the magic of the Isles of Lacayes. Tears formed in Amani’s eyes. “Benita said that her mom had a foretelling of men from a distant land coming to destroy our world and steal our magic. She’s wrong, isn’t she?”

“Yes. I’m going to help keep us all safe.”

“Promise?”

I kissed my fingers and touched them over Amani’s heart. “Promise.” Turning to Taja, Amani’s guardian on the island, I said, “Look after her.”

With one final wave goodbye, I pushed off the dock and into the water. My legs morphed into a tail as I sank, and I quickly navigated to my unit’s barracks.

I found my place in line and listened to the unit commander, the Sovereign Sorceress, review routine niceties and then missive assignments.

“There is a ship currently navigating the Atlantic and heading straight for our isles. Of course, it is our job to stop it.” She paused and scanned the line of soldiers. “Dayana, you will head toward Bimini and stop the ship. Madara will accompany you.”

“Yes, Sovereign Sorceress.”

“You two are dismissed. May the Goddess Supreme be with you.”

Using my wrist cuffs as a guide, Madara and I swam to our destination.

“There,” Madara said, pointing ahead. “I see the ship approaching. Permission to practice my siren call?”

I surveyed the shadow. “This ship is larger than previous ones we have dealt with. I think our best course of action is to sink it with the Tempest Spell.”

Madara’s eyebrows furrowed, but she didn’t argue. I crossed my wrists in front of my chest and whispered, “Tempestas aqua celia.” The calm water quickly angered… but not enough to capsize the ship.

I looked at Madara’s wrists. Her cuffs were not activated. “Madara, with a ship this size, we both need to invoke the magic of the isles for the storm to be strong enough.”

“Dayana, this is my chance to prove myself.” Her fluke thrashed in the water as she propelled upward.

I gritted my teeth and went after her. Her rash behavior was going to get her hurt, or worse, killed.

The rough waves jostled me. Rain pelted my face as I broke the surface. But without me consciously pulling the magic of the isle, the storm settled.

“Madara, no!” I swam straight for her. There was no way an apprentice of the siren call could successfully lure an entire crew into the water.

Men screamed above us. I reached Madara and pushed her under the waves. “Are you so daft you can’t see they aren’t entranced? You need—”

A great force snatched me from the water. I thrashed, trying to get free, but something encumbered my fluke. Pain shot through my head and the world went dark.

Thud. Creak. I turned to the sound of footsteps.

“Sea Witch,” hissed a short, balding man.

I said a silent prayer of thanks to the Goddess Supreme. If I could understand my captor’s foreign language, I still had my cuffs.

He spat at my feet. “I know you are in league with the devil, but I shall strike a deal with you. Lead me to the Magisulae, the artifact that gives you and your people magic, and I’ll let you and your loved ones live.”

“Osten Teritae,” I whispered. Images of what was yet to come if I agreed flashed in my mind—the isles stripped of its power, and my people, slain, or, through distorted mercy, denied their tails and enslaved.

The sting of a salty tear ran down my cheek as I thought about Amani. I would never again squeeze her hand in sisterly assurance, ensure her bedroom was monster-free, or tell her she makes me proud because of who she is and… The riptide of grief pulled me under as I realized I would never get to see who she would become.

The man smiled with yellow, decaying teeth. “You will be wise to—”

“Captain Columbus,” a sailor called from above.

The captain turned. “Not now!”

The haggard sailor started down the steps then stopped. “But Captain, there is talk of mutiny if the sea witch isn’t returned to the ocean!”

“Gold and glory await us, my boy. The men should be thanking me.”

The sailor eyed me suspiciously and then retreated to the deck.

I looked at my captor, and, as if the Goddess Supreme whispered in my ear herself, an idea was born. “I’ll take you to the Magisulae,” I lied. “I’ll lead you to greater fortune than you could ever imagine.” I would indeed lead them to great treasures, away from home in the Bermuda Triangle—once we entered the portal, we would never return. I wouldn’t see Amani again in this life, but at least she’d have a chance to grow up.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kayla E. Green is a school librarian and speculative fiction author living in eastern North Carolina with her husband and their furbabies. When she isn’t writing, reading, or taking photos for her bookstagram, she loves singing loudly and off-key to K-Love Radio, napping, and pretending she’s a unicorn. Her debut YA fantasy novella, Aivan: The One Truth, is now available through book retailers. Kayla also has stories and poems featured in various anthologies.

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