Chapter 12

I had never seen a meridraken up close, and I don’t recommend it. I was the only one in my family who hadn’t been a dinosaur nut at some point in their childhood, so I didn’t have any thrill at seeing a refugee from the Mesozoic paddling through the water.

What the heck is it doing all the way out here? They always have riders, don’t they? There aren’t any wild ones, they came from the demons’ homeworld!

Not caring about my facts, the green creature powered through the water. The beast’s long, serpentine body twisted in a back-and-forth pattern, driven by a flipper on its thick tail. I’d hoped they would be smaller in person, but I had no such luck. It dwarfed the speedboat we had come from, and its tapered jaws were full of teeth like railroad spikes.

It didn’t come right at me, instead swimming in a wide, lazy arc through the water. The eye never left me, telling me that I was next. I wished it would just attack already; waiting just gave me time to worry. I gulped, the sound echoing through my magical diving helmet, as I tried to steel my resolve. Zack and the woman didn’t have any way to escape if it went for them, or a way to fight back. I wasn’t sure I did either.

What are you doing, you idiot? You’re half-trained and out of control! You can’t take on a meridraken underwater! You’re going to end up like Albert!

That voice that loved to tear me down made a mistake mentioning Albert. He’d gone down doing his duty, after all. I was a wizard, darn it, and I wasn’t going to save myself at the expense of mundanes who couldn’t fight it off as well.

Well, that assumed my spells would work underwater. Stormbringer was out; I tried to manipulate the water the way I would the air, but it didn’t budge an inch. I was down to my regular selection of spells. What did I have that could work underwater? Heck, what do I have that would even make it blink?

The sea on its other side still churned as Zack and the other tourist swam away. I needed to keep its attention, and I could test a theory while I was at it. “Lovely Fireworks!” The sea was filled with a brilliant display of colors, nearly as varied as the coral in the distance.

Good, I’d remembered how the spell worked. I wouldn’t be throwing any Fireballs around, but anything that created structures of magical energy would work just fine.

I needed to pick another spell quickly, though; the meridraken didn’t care for my light show one bit. The water shook with what I realized was an enraged roar, a rumbling that I felt, even if I didn’t hear it. It charged forward, its jaw gaping open.

“Magic Bolt!” A blue sphere of energy formed in the water in front of me. The hardened ball of magic shot forward, propelled by a store of magic that left a trail like a comet in its wake. I’d never seen it do that before; I would have thought it was pretty, if I hadn’t been too busy swimming out of the way.

The spell would have punched through most body armor, but it only glanced off the meridraken’s thick scales. The bolt had been designed to fly through the air, not cut through dense seawater.

I only just got out of the way, but I was sent end over end as I was caught in the creature’s wake. My mind raced as I steadied myself. Okay, Magic Bolt is out, Fireball is out. I needed something that didn’t rely on momentum to do its damage.

Oh, heck, it was coming back for me. I didn’t have time for an attack, I needed to defend myself!

“Svalinn’s Mercy!” I threw as much magic as I could into the defensive spell. Normally the red, translucent barrier would have been the size of a medieval kite shield, but I modified the gesture, creating a solid wall of energy as tall as me, with a thickness like a brick wall.

The meridraken’s dead eyes almost looked surprised as it ran snout-first into the Svalinn’s Mercy. It held, but only because the shield didn’t stop its charge. Instead of staying in place, the serpent’s momentum carried it forward, and I was almost flattened. It passed just beneath me, and its wake sent me tumbling again.

I was becoming short of breath, and it wasn’t just because of my exertions dodging the reptile’s charges. The inside of the magical bubble was becoming unbearably hot and stuffy. I was quickly using up the small supply of air I had trapped around my head. I had to get to the surface and remake the Brilliant Bathysphere.

The meridraken wasn’t feeling cooperative, another rumble filling the water as it whirled around. It left behind the wall of energy. Blood trailed from the front of its jaws, the impact with my shield having snapped off most of its conical front feet. It didn’t need them to ruin my day, though.

I gasped, wasting precious air. I’d only have time for one spell before it came at me again. Magic Bolt didn’t faze it, Svalinn’s Mercy didn’t stop it, Stormbringer won’t work here… What other spells do I have?

The trouble with magic is that knowing a spell well enough for a test doesn’t mean that you can use it in a fight. Most wizards will settle on a small list of go-to spells that they’ll drill into their heads so well they can cast them in their sleep. (I mean that literally; sleep casting during a nightmare is a real worry). When the adrenaline is pumping and the horrors of the Horde are bearing down on you, you don’t want to waste your time on anything fancy.

That’s why I settled on a simple utility spell: Merlin’s Lantern. It would usually cast as much light as a torch, but I threw everything I had into it. I had once started a small forest fire when I used it too intensely on a hot day for a lesson, and I threw ten times as much magic into it this time. I wanted this sucker dazzled!

“Merlin’s Lantern!” Immediately, the cool water around me felt like a hot tub, and the blast wasn’t even pointed at me. A pained rumble shook the superheated water. I’d expected to blind the meridraken, but the stunned creature’s snout was left charred and blackened. I might have overdone it.

If my little air pocket felt stuffy before, now the water vapor from my breath felt like the steam from a sauna. Stars danced before my eyes, and it was so tempting to close them, to rest for a bit…

I pinched my leg again hard enough that I knew I’d leave a mark. Sleep later. You aren’t done.

The creature’s sinuous body twisted as it writhed in apparent agony. I took the chance to kick my way to the surface, unsummoning the Blessed Bathysphere. Salt air had never tasted so good before.

I didn’t have time to enjoy myself, though. I replaced the magical air bubble and dove back under, just in time to see the meridraken disappearing into the distance.

I almost took off after it, before realizing how stupid that was. I was still on an adrenaline high after my near brush with death, my instincts telling me to finish the fight.

Something brushed my shoulder, and I spun around. Poor Zack nearly got a Magic Bolt to the face, but I stopped myself. The knife in his hand reflected the dying sparks of the cancelled spell. I couldn’t blame him for looking shocked; I’m sure I looked the same. What’s he doing here?

He pointed up, and I nodded. We breached the surface and I removed the bubble again.

“Where’s the other diver?” I asked.

“Mary? I got her to safety,” he said.

“Why aren’t you with her?” I demanded.

He scoffed at that. “You just went off to fight a bloody sea monster! I wasn’t going to let you do it alone.”

“It shrugged off a Magic Bolt! What was that little knife going to do?”

“I don’t know, but I wasn’t going to just stand by while you went up against a dinosaur!”

I was cross at my brothers right then; meridraken weren’t dinosaurs at all. If anything, they were a sort of mosasaur, more like a giant monitor lizard. Why was that fact bouncing around in my head, taking up space?

As the battle-high faded, I shivered in the cooling sea, and not just from the temperature. Zack’s words had brought home how stupid the stunt I’d just pulled was.

“We need to get going,” said Zack, touching me on the shoulder. “There’s blood in the water, and the boatman said there were sharks. Is any of it yours?”

“No, but I might have left some pee behind,” I said, chuckling at my weak joke. It was better than panicking.

He let out a relieved sigh. “You know I’m supposed to keep you out of trouble, yeah? You’re not making it easy to do my job.”

I nodded, noticing he didn’t take his hand away immediately. “I still can’t believe I pulled it off.”

“I could see some of the fireworks,” he said, his grip tightening. “Don’t do anything like that again, yeah? I don’t want to lose another Cooper.”

“Don’t worry, it’s not in the plans,” I replied. “I think this is the end of our day off, isn’t it?”

“Definitely. You just fought off a meridraken with no rider. I’ve never heard the like. There’s going to be so many reports to fill out.” His face paled. “You fought off a meridraken when I was supposed to keep you out of trouble. Bloody heck, they’re not going to let us go until midnight.”

We made our way back towards the islands in silence. It was slow going, since we kept looking back to make sure my playmate didn’t want a rematch. It seemed we were lucky, though. I think at the end of the day, it was just a dumb animal, even if it was a demon’s pet. It could find easier meals elsewhere.

“Zack?” I asked, my voice full of trepidation.

“What’s wrong, do you see it?” He came to a stop, treading water.

“No, it’s just… you really came back for me with a pocketknife.”

“Of course,” he said. “I wasn’t going to let you go without a fight.”

I wrapped my arms around his shoulders, pressing myself against him. “If this is the end of our day off, here’s what I was going to give you tonight.” I knew I shouldn’t have. You always do this, going too fast!

I didn’t care. Our lips met. For how long? I couldn’t tell you. I didn’t even mind the sudden cloudburst that rained down on us. Stormbringer had just saved our lives; I didn’t mind breaking loose a bit.