~ Chapter 15 : The Sceptre ~
~ Chapter 15 : The Sceptre ~
The Manta hovered on the edge of the open tunnel, holding both hands on the edge of the opening and leaning forward to look inside, probably to gauge how safe it was for them to travel through. Melody thought that he looked a little worried, though it wasn’t like Melody was an expert at judging a villainous manta’s emotions.
So instead she focused her thoughts on the tunnel itself which was gaping open like a mouth. And, like a mouth, it lay open with the unspoken promise that it might close shut at any moment.
“It’s unstable,” the Manta said finally.
“We know this,” said the Sorceress, a little sharply. “But it will lay open until moonlight touches the sea floor, and that’s not long to go so we’ve got to do this now. Knowing those backstabbing slime we recruited to take over Atlantica, it’s not long before they go berserk and start tearing the city apart. If they haven’t already.”
The Manta tilted his head up. “Agreed. Let’s go.”
Melody, having no choice in the matter, reluctantly settled down for the ride as the Sorceress and the Manta entered the tunnel.
Although it was open and easy to swim through, there were occasional sharp rocks sticking out in the way, but the Manta dealt with those quickly, allowing the Sorceress in Melody’s body to swim straight down without making difficult manoeuvres.
The water was old. Melody didn’t know how she knew, but there was something ancient and undisturbed about the water that they swam through, and it felt almost like an old room that hadn’t been used for years. Melody may not have had control of her body, but she could feel the water against her skin and smell that strange scent of aged rock that grew stronger with every foot they descended through the tunnel.
It was just then that Melody realised that she’d been in such a tunnel before, and she quickly clamped down on that thought so the Sorceress wouldn’t be able to read it. The Sorceress didn’t, though that was probably because the she was too busy being excited that there were so close to their treasure.
“My teacher was a historian, you see,” the Sorceress said out loud, and Melody quickly figured that the speech was for her benefit, not the Manta’s. “And although I had little interest in history, there was a line in an old text that caught my attention. I’m quoting from memory, but it was written by an old soothsayer about a dozen generations before my own, and it said that there would come a day when the powerful trident will be gone from the ocean, and it is on that day that the sceptre would return.
“Now I myself didn’t pay it much mind, because I didn’t believe that the sceptre ever really existed. I don’t think anyone does, not even actual historians. Can you imagine, humans having such power in their hands? It shudders to think. Anyway, it was only very recently that I started to realise that there may be some truth to the old promise, because of the conditions tied to it.”
“One condition in particular,” the Manta said.
“Indeed,” said the Sorceress. “You see, Princess Moira – if she ever really existed – placed a spell on the tunnels when she sealed it. The spell would not allow anyone to claim the sceptre, except a child of both worlds. Moira was a romantic, believing that love would bloom again between a man and woman of both worlds.”
If Melody had control of her body, she would have gasped . You mean my mom and dad.
“Exactly,” said the Sorceress. “When I got tide of the news that dear sweet Ariel had married a human, I thought, hmm, that’s interesting. It wasn’t too long after that that there was all that ruckus about Ariel and her human husband having a child. And I thought, that’s EVEN MORE interesting.”
The Manta smirked as he carefully cleared another sharp rock from their way.
So that means… The wheels continued to click as Melody put it together. That means that this was all about me, from the very beginning.
The Sorceress laughed. “She says that it was all about her,” the Sorceress told the Manta, who laughed as well. “No, my dear, it was all about power. The greatest power in the entire ocean is Atlantica, symbolised by its trident. There are many who have tried again and again to claim the trident and they’ve all failed spectacularly, but in my studies I discovered that it has been fully predestined that both Atlantica and its trident would fall.
“So once I realised the truth of the old prophecy, I had to make sure that destiny would be fulfilled,” the Sorceress explained. “So it was the Manta and I who gathered all the enemies of Atlantica to attack on the day that it would be IMPOSSIBLE for them to lose – the day of the seaquake, the day the trident would be lost from the ocean, and the day that a child of both worlds would be able to enter an old forgotten tunnel to claim the sceptre.”
But what about my mother? Melody asked.
“What about your mother?” the Sorceress echoed.
Why did you poison her? Melody asked. She had nothing to do with this, you only needed me!
“Oh, we poisoned her so that she’d be out of the way,” the Sorceress said casually. “We couldn’t have her foiling our plans, could we? She does have an alarming tendency of doing that. Repeatedly.”
“This looks like it could be it,” the Manta said, slowing down to a stop. The rock around a small area of the tunnel wall was cut differently, a sharper texture than it was elsewhere and slightly reddish. “Everything else is unmarked.”
“Here we go, then,” the Sorceress said. She raised Melody’s right hand – the one that still had the thin silver bracelet locked around the wrist – to touch the rocky surface.
As the Sorceress brought the hand closer to the reddish rock, a dull roar filled Melody’s ears and her hand became heavier with each inch of movement, as though time itself was slowing down. At the same instant, Melody was overcome with the feeling that she was filling out her own body again while the Sorceress was pushed out.
Everything turned white in a moment of blindness that made Melody shut her eyes. Then a familiar voice called out.
“Hello again, princess.”
Melody smiled, and she could feel her mouth moving with it. She opened her eyes. “Hello, Princess Moira.”
The same vision of a beautiful human woman with long red hair was before her. There was nothing else around them – no tunnel, no Manta, no Sorceress – just Melody and Moira in an empty space of perfect white.
“Do you know why you’re here?” Moira asked, her voice like the echoes of centuries long forgotten.
“The Sorceress brought me here,” Melody said.
“The Sorceress borrowed your body,” Moira said. “But that is not why you’re here.”
“I’m here…” Melody thought carefully. “I’m here because I’m a child of land and sea.”
Moira’s smile was as perfect as an old marble statue. “Yes, that’s it exactly. I’m glad to meet you, Melody. As is Tempus. We know you and your family will do well.”
The whiteness started to fade away, and Melody cried out in alarm, “Wait! You don’t understand! The Manta and the Sorceress are with me and they’re using me to get the sceptre—”
It was too late, and Melody was back in the dark tunnel with the Manta hovering above her.
But now Melody was holding something heavy in her hands.
Melody reacted without thinking, gripping the handle of the sceptre tightly with both hands and swinging it around to point the sharp end towards the Manta. The old magic felt warm beneath her fingers and Melody knew that she’d be able to use the sceptre on the Manta without any problems.
“Don’t move,” Melody hissed.
The Manta didn’t, but he didn’t have to.
The rock came down to the back of Melody’s head, causing a burst of pain behind her eyes. As Melody passed out, she just made out the shape of another person in the tunnel who laughed like the Sorceress.
And it was the Sorceress, who was, at this point, in pure rapture.
She raised a hand up to her face. A hand, an actual hand. It was thinner than she remembered, but it was hers, with slightly green long fingers that tapered at the ends with long-limbed elegance.
She raised the other hand, which had the same right shape and colour, and as a bonus was now holding the sceptre firmly in its grip.
“It’s sharper than I expected,” the Sorceress said, tilting the sceptre back and forth to let the light glint off the corner of the sharp end. “It’s almost like a sword.”
“That makes sense,” the Manta conceded. “A trident for the sea, a sword for the land.”
The Sorceress nodded, and rolled her shoulders. Shoulders!
“What happened just there?” the Manta asked carefully. He adjusted his hold on the unconscious Melody, who was now draped over his shoulder like a sack of yesterday’s clams. “You were pulled out of her body?”
“Only Melody could claim the sceptre, and since I was a hitchhiking guest, the sceptre pushed me out from her body and cancelled out Triton’s old spell,” the Sorceress said, waving it off. “I had considered that a possibility but didn’t know it would actually happen. Thank goodness it did, too, who knows what damage that idiot Melody would have managed to get up to with the sceptre in her hands.”
The Manta was quiet for a while, letting the Sorceress admire the sceptre and try different ways of holding it. Then, he said, “I think we’d better leave.”
“Oh yes, Atlantica awaits us,” the Sorceress said.
“That, too,” the Manta said. “But I’m more concerned about that.” He pointed down.
The Sorceress looked and saw that in the distance, the tunnel was collapsing onto itself, returning to its former state as solid rock.
“Oh,” said the Sorceress.
The Sorceress swam in smooth curves back up the tunnel with her strong tail guiding the way. Every now and then she reached out a hand or leg to find purchase on a rock to push herself forward, gaining speed as she could hear the collapsing rocks catching up with them.
The Manta, naturally, was a gentleman and let her lead the way.
The Sorceress emerged from the top of the tunnel and inhaled large gulps of fresh water through her new pair of genuine nostrils. The Manta wasn’t that far behind, and raised his tail out of the tunnel just in time before the rock sealed together with a gentle whoomph, bits of dust and sand flying about in its wake.
The Sorceress grinned (with her own teeth!) and raised both her arms upwards in a sign of victory. Then she opened her mouth and laughed, a long, hearty laugh that made her villainous heart thump happily in its newly reconstructed chest. “Triton, you idiot, I’m back! After all your spells and your speeches, I’m back!”
The sceptre in her hand responded to her joy and shot out a brief but very bright flash of light that sailed across open waters and temporarily blinded anyone in its path.
+++
“—dangerooooooo—wha-I-can’t-seeeeeeee!”
Dash’s failed war cry blended with Jeremy’s and the Octopans’ own shouts of alarm as they collided into each other.
+++
“Ah…” the Sorceress sighed happily when she was done and the sceptre went back to its dull gold colour. “You don’t know how long I’ve been waiting to do that.”
The Manta smirked. “You’d be surprised.”
The Sorceress looked at him, the thin slits of her eyes glowing with excitement. “Would you like to hold it?”
The Manta looked at her in surprise. Before he could respond, the Sorceress grabbed one of his hands and placed the handle of the sceptre in it. It looked ridiculously small in the Manta’s large palm, but he still held it with carefully, raising it up above his head in a pose suited for a painting.
“How do I look?” the Manta asked.
“Like you’re holding a kitchen knife,” the Sorceress said, chuckling.
“Here, you take it,” the Manta said, once again looking surprised, but this time at himself. “It’ll obey you better.”
The Sorceress cackled softly under her breath. “You’re right.” She clutched the sceptre’s handle tightly and aimed it at a nearby boulder.
It took a thought, really. Just a casual thought, fuelled by both the Sorceress’ years of craving vengeance and the sceptre’s centuries of untouched magic.
When it was over, the Sorceress and the Manta stared at what was left of the boulder. Which wasn’t a lot, except for little pieces of shattered rock that slowly flittered down to the ground and a puddle of something that looked like molten magma that sizzled from the heat.
“Nice,” the Manta said.
“Isn’t it?” the Sorceress said. She swung the sceptre around in a wide arc, and deliberately let it make a low whum-whum sound of suppressed magic. “I think we’re ready for our comeback.”
They reached out for each other, the Sorceress’ smaller but much pointier hand resting neatly in the Manta’s large but not at all clumsy palm. The Sorceress raised the sceptre, formed a magical whirlpool around them.
And so off they went towards the city of Atlantica with the most powerful magical item in the entire ocean.
For a while the area was quiet, and then the reeds nearby rustled and parted to reveal Tip, the penguin.
“That was… unexpected,” he said.
Miasma followed suit, swimming out from between the small shelter of reeds where she and Tip had been watching the Manta and the newly-formed Sorceress step out of the now-nonexistent tunnels with the sceptre.
“That was the human sceptre,” said Miasma, her voice filled with worry. “Which means that the prophecy has been fulfilled, Atlantica has fallen, and the trident is gone.”
“I still don’t believe you about that, by the way,” Tip said. “About the trident being gone, I mean.”
Miasma gave him a look. “I don’t make prophecies, I just read about them.”
“Still don’t believe ya,” Tip said, shrugging. “The trident’s gotta be around here somewhere, a thing that powerful just don’t up and go poof.”
“That may be true, but everything else about the prophecy has come to be,” Miasma said. “And, for all intents and purposes, they’ve won.”
“The bad guys?”
“Yes.”
“But the bad guys aren’t supposed to win.”
Miasma sighed. “Sometimes they do.”
Tip kicked her, though it was just a pretend kick because she was still a old merlady and there were some things that Tip’s mom had taught him well enough. “I can’t believe you didn’t let me try and save Melody.”
“Not when that Sorceress has the sceptre,” Miasma snapped. “As far as we know, we’re the only Atlanticans that haven’t been captured and I’d like to keep it that way.”
“So what are we gonna do now?” Tip asked. “Seige the city and take it back?”
Miasma looked at the small penguin. “I don’t think the two of us can do that on our own.”
Tip sighed. “We can’t just—”
“But we could,” Miasma continued, “If we had a little help. I need to pick up a few things from my place first. Come on.”
+++
“My head hurts,” said Dash. He wondered for a moment why Jeremy didn’t answer, then he realised that the reason for that was because that Dash was lying on top of him. “Oops!” Dash said as he quickly got off his friend.
“What was that?” Jeremy asked as he tried to rub his head and eyes at the same time.
“Beats me,” said Dash. “It was a big flashy thing.”
“Halt, you two!”
Dash and Jeremy looked up to see one of the Octopans that had been charging towards them earlier. He was blinking oddly, having also been affected by the strange flash of light, but was still trying his best to point his spear at the walrus and the merboy.
Behind him the other Octopan was groaning and rubbing his head. Dash was already flexing his flippers as a warm-up for round two of their charge, but he was interrupted mid-flex when the water around them suddenly picked up, as though a sea storm was brewing around them.
Even the Octopan looked alarmed, and his eyes widened when he saw something over Dash’s shoulder. Dash turned around and saw a whirlpool heading straight for them.
“Jeremy…?” Dash said slowly.
+++
The fight in the treasure vault had blossomed like a little boil of fury that spilled out into the streets. Atlantica was a mess of chaos between creatures that had wanted the city for so long, and now that it was theirs, no one was going to take it away from them, especially not the other creatures that had worked side by side with them in taking over the city.
“My people broke their defenses! Many of us fell in the first charge, this is our compensation!” Aculeatus shouted, his spear making a loud clang as it struck Darga’s sword.
“Your people? My people were the fiercest attackers! One Sharkanian warrior took out more Atlanticans than a whole Octopan battalion combined!” Emperor Darga shouted back, his sword slicing through the water in the hopes that it would strike a tentacle, any tentacle.
“What about ussssss?” demanded Lord Frith, his claws out like little knives, ready to strike anything that got in his way. “It wasssss our sssssssubterfuge that dessssstroyed their warningsssss!”
Followers are only as good as their leaders, so as these three fought, their followers followed suit. And as for others who didn’t belong in these major factions, most of them had grabbed what treasure they could and were trying to escape from the city, but found themselves stopped by other looters who immediately got angry that the others had more loot than them and, well, more fighting broke out.
Curses were spat and weapons were struck, and surely the fight would have gone on straight into the night if it hadn’t been for the whirlpool of water that suddenly appeared over the city.
The fighting stopped as everyone looked up in surprise at the magical whirlpool which was crackling with small pieces of lightning like a self-contained air storm, but underwater.
“What in the name of—” Darga started to say.
Two Octopans, a blonde merboy, a raven mergirl and a walrus fell out of the whirlpool like discarded rubbish, all of them hitting the sea bed in an undignified and very unconscious lump.
The whirlpool stopped, and in what had been its centre, was the Manta.
Well, the Manta and something else that looked vaguely female.
“Atlantica, I have returned!” said the female creature who had blue-green skin that could have, once upon a time, been the beige-orange hue of the merpeople. She had unnaturally long arms and legs that bent with the awkward angles of a reptile and a long tail that flicked out across the water to keep her upright, but none of the creatures that were looking at her now could imagine that anything so odd had ever existed in the ocean.
And in one hand she was holding an item, if it were a little shorter and shaped like a different type of kitchen utensil, could have been King Triton’s trident.
“What is the meaning of this, Manta?” Aculeatus asked.
“Your services have been greatly appreciated,” said the Manta. “As they will continue to be.”
“What?”
“I am the Sorceress!” the female creature announced, her voice resonating through the city with unnatural loudness. “And I have come back to claim the city that is rightfully mine!”
The city exploded in a mess of noise.
“Your city?” “What’s she yakking about?” “Can someone shut her up a bit?”
The Sorceress raised the sceptre she was holding and pointed it towards one of the palace towers. It glowed briefly with magical light, and then a bolt of lightning shot out and smashed the tower spire to smithereens.
Everyone, except the Manta who had seen this already, was shocked into silence.
“The age of the trident has ended!” the Sorceress announced. “And the age of the sceptre begins!”
What followed was a brief few seconds when all the creatures that had until a few moments earlier been fighting bitterly suddenly decided that a common enemy carrying a magical item was surely the biggest obstacle in their way of keeping ownership of the Atlantican city. So Sharkanians, Octopans, serpents and some of the other braver miscellaneous creatures charged at the Sorceress.
Who merely pointed the sceptre at them and pushed them back to the sea bed with another flash of magical light.
“My citizens,” the Sorceress said softly. She held the sceptre in both her hands, twirled it overhead like a baton and then pointed it downwards – an even brighter gold-green light emerged from the sceptre and shot out across the enter city floor, covering all the creatures that had been in it.
Then the light faded away, but not completely, leaving behind faint green-gold rings of magic that looped around all the individual necks of all the creatures that had been caught in the spell.
Emperor Darga tried to touch the magical ring, but his fingers just passed through the light as though it were nothing but a shadow. Irritated at this, he picked up his sword and started to charge at the Sorceress, but the green-gold ring suddenly tightened around his neck, causing a fierce electric shock to slam through his body like hammer.
Sharkanians watched in horror as their leader collapsed like a day-old babyfish on the sandy sea bed.
The octopans looked at their leader. Aculeatus experimentally lifted an arm, but nothing happened. Then he lifted that arm towards the Sorceress, but still nothing. Then, when he lifted his arm holding the royal spear and pointed it towards the Sorceress with the full intent of using it against the Sorceress, he got the electric shock and fell to the ground, gasping in pain.
“Anyone else would like to try?” the Sorceress asked. “I assure you, it works for everyone.”
Angry eyes glared at the Sorceress, who merely laughed.
“We will not forget your treachery, Manta,” said Emperor Darga, who was being helped up by two of his minions.
“Treachery?” the Manta said, sounding playfully surprised. “I have done no such thing. I promised you the defeat of Atlantica, and I have delivered. No one asked me what was going to happen after.”
The Sorceress twittered happily. “The first thing I ask of my loyal subjects is for you to bow.”
They glared at her.
The Sorceress raised the sceptre that promptly glowed mild green, sending shockwaves of pain through all the creatures that were now marked with green-gold rings of magic around their necks.
She laughed. It really was turning out to be a great day.
+++
When Melody woke up, the first thing she noticed was the pain. The back of her head throbbed with dull pulses of hurt that made it difficult for her to open her eyes. But she had to open her eyes because the second thing she noticed was that a comforting voice was talking to her.
“Melody, are you awake?” It sounded like Dash.
Melody forced her eyes open into a squint, and was relieved to see that it really was Dash. And over his shoulder was a familiar flash of blonde hair – Jeremy.
“What happened?” Melody asked, her voice a low groan.
“We were kind hoping you could tell us,” Dash said.
Dash helped Melody to sit up, and there was a strange clinking sound as she did so. Once she could focus, Melody saw that the reason for the clinking was because the three of them were inside a metal cage shaped like a larger version of those bird cages Melody had seen but didn’t like, and she liked it even less now that she was inside one. Jeremy was poking around at the edges of the cage, possibly to see if there was any way to get out.
“There was…” Melody suddenly remembered everything and was wide awake. “The sceptre – the Sorceress – she must be stopped!”
“Whoa down there,” said Jeremy, finally abandoning his study of the cage. “What and who?”
“The sceptre,” said Melody. “It’s like the trident but—”
“It’s better than the trident,” said a silken voice. Melody and her two friends looked up and saw the Manta hovering right above them, the edge of his long tail curled slightly around one of the metal rungs of the cage. He draped himself over the top of the cage like a lazy cat studying its trapped prey.
“Princess Melody here was so helpful to lead us right to the sceptre,” the Manta said. “With the trident gone, Atlantica would surely have fallen into turmoil, but now we can keep the city in tip-top condition. For that, I thank you, Princess.”
“Don’t thank me just yet,” Melody said through gritted teeth.
The Manta mockingly bowed to the trio and then spread his wings and swam out of view.
Once the Manta was gone, Melody swam right up to the edge of the cage and wrapped her hands around the bars. When she looked down past the edge of the cage’s crude metal floor, she realised that they were hanging from the ceiling of the large royal throne room of her grandfather’s palace.
“What did he mean by that?” Jeremy asked carefully.
Melody looked at him and sighed. “It’s a long story, but I think we’ve got the time for it now.”
+++
Eric found Ariel sitting on one of the lower steps of the marble staircase that connected their castle down to the shoreline. He’d brought a woollen wrap with him, which he carefully put around his wife’s shoulders, and then sat down next to her.
Ariel tilted her head, the moonlight just making out the bright blue of her eyes between the strands of loose red hair. “I love being human,” she said, “But it’s just as complicated up here as it was down there.”
Eric nodded and put an arm around her shoulders, letting her rest her weight against him. Ariel sighed softly in satisfaction.
“Let’s go in,” Eric said. “The guards will keep watch for news from Atlantica.”
Ariel nodded against his shoulder and didn’t resist when he helped her to her feet. They had gone up two steps when they heard the unmistakable sound of someone surfacing in the ocean.
They turned, and there was Tip, the penguin, on the lowest marble step.
“Your Highnesses!” Tip exclaimed, heaving for breath as though he’d had to swim a long distance very quickly. “Atlantica!”
“What’s happened in Atlantica?” Ariel asked quickly.
“No, not in Atlantica,” Tip said. “To Atlantica.”
Ariel’s face displayed the shock for the two of them. “What happened?”
“Actually, I’m not really sure, but I brought someone with me who knows…” Tip turned around and gestured behind him, where there was another figure just breaking the watery surface. It was an en elderly mermaid as far as Eric could make out, but from Ariel’s expression, she had no idea who it was.
“Greetings, Majesties. You don’t know me,” said the elderly mermaid, “But Queen Ariel’s sister does. Aquata was my apprentice for half a season before she decided that potions and remedies were not her forte.”
“I think I remember that,” Ariel said, her voice far away as she recalled a distant memory. “Daddy was against it, but I don’t remember why.”
“He had good reason to be against it,” the mermaid said. “Considering my previous student was too enthusiastic in her studies and took a path even I could not have predicted.”
“Your previous student?” Ariel echoed.
“Ursula,” said the mermaid.
Ariel made a surprised sound that was half a gasp and half an incomplete word of exclamation.
Eric gave his wife a comforting touch on her lower back before turning to the elderly mermaid and saying, “Then you should know that our history with the sea witch has been… tainted.”
“Yes, that’s why I’m telling you this now, as we first meet,” said the mermaid. “So that there will be no surprises later on, and you know exactly where I’m coming from. My name is Miasma, and I dabble in potions, portents and medicines. I was recruited by Lady Aquata to develop the antidote that you took; I believe it was earlier today.”
“That was you,” said Ariel.
“And you know what’s going on?” asked Eric.
“I know a part of it,” said Miasma. “The part with an old prophecy involving Princess Melody that has apparently come to pass, thanks to the Sorceress and the Manta. I will tell you this story, if you’ll come with me.”
“Me?” Ariel and Eric said in unison.
“Well, I was hoping for just Queen Ariel, but if you’d like to accompany her, by all means,” said Miasma. She lifted out a round shell bag out of the water, which glinted unnaturally due its magically-volatile content.
“But I—” Ariel trailed off.
“Atlantica has fallen, Your Majesty,” Miasma said, her voice harsh but not unkind. “It has been taken over by the Sorceress, the Manta and just about every other enemy that your father has made over the years. The trident is gone, and in its place is the sceptre, a magical item of equal power but has not been used for centuries, so goodness knows how much magic it’s built up since.
“Atlantica,” continued Miasma, “Needs a champion. To be honest, it needs just about anyone at this point since all the Atlanticans have been taken prisoner, but as it just so happens, its best champion, the one who has time and time again rescued the city, is still free and is with us right here, right now. Atlantica needs you, Queen Ariel.”
Ariel was blinking rapidly as Miasma’s words sunk in. “Atlantica has fallen?”
“Fallen,” acknowledged Tip.
“To the Sorceress and the Manta?” Ariel said.
“The bad guys, yeah,” said Tip.
Eric saw Ariel’s expression change, and the determination that was now in it made him fall in love with her all over again.
“Take me there,” said Ariel.
Eric could have argued that it was late and Ariel had only just recovered from being poisoned and that three individuals could do very little against an entire army that had successfully taken over the entire underwater city, but this was Ariel, so he merely said, “Let me make some arrangements. I’m coming with you.”
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