Ella is the sea witch who has been captured by Kenn the villain, who is Poseidon’s bastard son, with not much power. They are in an underwater cave on a shelf above the water line. Mischell is a teenage mermaid. Noah is the hero with no magical powers.
I hope you enjoy this excerpt from:
“The Witch with the Trident Tattoo”
“Ella saw Mischell first and shook her head no.
Alerted, Kenn turned, brandishing the sword. “And what are you doing here?”
“I got lost. You know me, Kenn, I’m always in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Mischell said.
“Oh, yeah, the little kleptomaniac,” he spit out. “You’re a long way from your pod. They keep to the shore, don’t they? What are the guardians going to say?”
She walked past Kenn and he turned to keep her in view. Noah took his opening and ran on silent feet, reaching Kenn, wrestling him to the floor and sending the sword flying.
Ella screamed, “No!”
The men rolled around each other, each trying for the first blow. Kenn landed a punch and stars danced across Noah’s vision. Sand flew up from the floor, kicked there by boots. Kenn fought hard for such a thin, sinewy, nasty piece of work. Kenn shoved both his feet against Noah’s stomach, sending him flying ten feet. He landed on his back, the air knocked out. He could hardly breathe.
The prick of a sword against his throat brought his attention back to the crazed man standing over him. “Who might you be?” Kenn said, between heavy breaths. His mouth took on an unpleasant twist. He wiped a hand across his bleeding lip.
Noah swiped the blade away and rolled to his feet, his knife once again in his hand. “I'm the man who’s going to kick your sorry ass.”
Kenn raised his sword high overhead and charged. They met, and with a quick maneuver, Noah disarmed him and held his knife to Kenn’s throat. “One word from you, Ella, and he’s no longer in the land of the living.”
“No more killing. I’ll send James for Poseidon. He will want to know and…” she trailed off, and slumped to the floor.
Noah kicked Kenn’s sword toward the water, satisfied when the blade splashed into the water. He pushed Kenn to the ground. “Stay here. Or move and give me the chance I want to slice you up for bait.”
He knelt by Ella. Mischell had untied her hands and Ella lay so still. Her time had run out and she had completed her change, her underwater abilities gone.
“Watch out,” Mischell cried.
Noah turned to see Kenn charging again, holding a large iron pot as a weapon. Before Noah could stand up, a long tentacle reached out and yanked Kenn off his feet. The tentacle pulled him toward the water. Kenn screamed all the way till the tentacle submerged him. Another tentacle emerged from the water, waving the sword overhead.
With the cavern no longer protected by Kenn’s Magick, the incoming tide pushed a surge of water over the lip of stone at the entrance, flooding the floor and growing deeper by the moment. Noah made lightning-fast calculations.
“Mischell, can you talk to James?”
“Yeah, sure, why?” She wrinkled her forehead.
“I need to give you both instructions on how to use my regulator and oxygen tank. We need to get Ella to safety on the boat.” He quickly outlined stop points for rising safely to the surface and how to read the depth gauge.
“Right got it, what about you?”
“I love her. She’s weak after changing and she needs to get to land. Ella won’t survive when this cavern floods.”
“You won’t either. What happens to you?” Tears filled the mermaid’s eyes.
“I’ll wait here. James can bring my spare tank. Go on now. Talk to James, make sure he understands how important the decompression times are.” Frustrated, he held Ella in his arms, kissing her face and the top of her head. Hugging her tight to his chest, wishing she could make the change more than once a day.
“Noah, I love you. You need to go back,” she whispered, “not me.”
“Captain’s orders, you’re going back to the Mystic Mermaid and safety.” He swallowed a lump in his throat, knowing he could well die here in this cave. “I’m going to give you instructions on how to breathe using the regulator. James knows about decompression—he’ll get you to safety.”
Wading through knee deep water, he carried her to the ledge above the sea tunnel. James wrapped his tentacle around her, cradling her. Noah attached the tank and mask to Ella and put the regulator in her mouth. He told her what to expect, and what to do. How much she would remember in her state he didn’t know. With blurred vision, he suppressed a sob. He had found his love and now might well lose her.
Submerged right below the surface, James held Ella; she was breathing in and out through the regulator like a pro. They sunk from view. The next surge of water knocked him down and pushed him across the floor; he bumped into Mischell. “When can you change back?” He was suddenly fearful for the young girl’s life.
“I’m staying here. I have time yet and I can change back when I want to. But if I’m too long on land, I’ll change with no warning.” She smiled. “I have an expiration time limit.”
They climbed up the rock wall till they could go no further, and sat on a narrow ledge, waiting. The ocean surged and retreated, each upsurge pushed the water closer to where they sat.
“Was Kenn living here?” Noah asked.
“No, he created this room, making a trap. He wanted to kill Ella.”
The next surge of the sea flooded the tunnel where the generator sat, and it sputtered out. In a blink the light disappeared. Noah closed his eyes against the darkness surrounding them. He was going to die, drowned like a rat in a sewer."
Drowning in a dark underwater cave is pretty scary to me for several reasons.
1) I'm claustrophobic, therefore dark places are suffocating to me.
2) With out the proper scuba gear there's not much chance of rescue.
3) And then there is drowning!
What sort of things scare you?
7 comments:
I'm not particularly claustrophobic although drowning isn't my preferred way to die but then neither is by fire. However, that isn't your question. These days what scares me is the number of people who disregard science and other people's safety and well-being.
I absolutely agree with you Judith! Thanks for stopping by.
Both scare me - people who are so selfish they have no regard for others. And drowning. I have never been able to put my head under water - even in the shower, if water gets on my face, it freaks me out. Swimming lessons - have you ever tried to do the crawl with your face out of water? That was me :-) BUT....having said that, I really enjoyed this book, Diana.
Thank you, Deb. I don't like putting my head under water either. My best stroke in swim class was the side crawl.
Fires scare me, and sadists of any ilk.
Love this excerpt. I can already see the set up for heroics and love.
I used to be a scuba diver well into my 40s. But I haven't dove since then. I use to dive on wrecks of WW2 submarines when I lived on the east coast, and the occasional downed sailing ship.
One of the scariest things for me was going into underwater caves when I was diving in Hawaii. I'm not claustrophobic, but I don't like going into places where I can't see the exit. Particularly if the cave is in an ocean, the surge inside the cave can be dangerous, bumping you into the side of a wall or pushing you forward faster than you can safely navigate. Many of them are at a depth that you do have to decompress when you come out. Consequently, I didn't go in long caves or enter into sunken ships where it was a tight squeeze and/or I couldn't see the exit. I did have a fear of running out of air and drowning.
For me, it's fire and knives. A bullet would be better than a knife. Enjoyed the excerpt. Loved the book too.
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