They had centuries of experience to draw upon. They were one with the old tongue, the language of magic. They didn’t need the words aloud because they’d built it up inside of them. Their cornerstones had given them the foundation to become something stronger than the world had ever seen. They formed their words in their heads and hearts, and the thoughts alone brought the magic into the world.
I was like them, in that respect.
I didn’t need those words either.
But there was a difference.
Sometimes, I didn’t even need the thought.
So when I pulled myself to my full height, there was no clear plan in my head. There was only the thought that someone had taken from me, had taken Tiggy, my friend. Had taken Ryan, my cornerstone.
And it was enough.
The sand began to swirl at my feet. First it was just a small corona, whipping itself around me as if caught by a moderate wind.
But it grew.
Clouds began to form in the sky above us, and as I turned my face upward, I felt what little moisture there was being sucked out of the air. The clouds were black and gray, and they trembled and they shook even as the thunder began to roll.
The corona was bigger now.
Much bigger.
The path was made clear beneath my feet, an old, worn stone thing that had been rubbed smooth by the moving sand.
And it grew bigger still.
Lightning arced in the clouds above. I wasn’t ready for it yet.
And it didn’t matter that I hadn’t done this before. That I’d never used this much magic before. None of it mattered. The only thing I could think of was Tiggy. And Ryan. And getting them back.
The corona had given way to a tornado.
The sky was dark now, almost like night had fallen, though it was still midday.
There were others, I knew. Other people I cared for. But they were safe. They would let me do this.
And then I raised the entire sea of sand.
It shot up around me on either side of the stone path, rising high up toward the storm above.
And I could see them then. Through the sand.
The mermaids.
There we
re dozens of them.
Later I was told that only seconds passed when Ryan and Tiggy were pulled under the sand. That everything that happened and everything that followed was only seconds.
But it felt like ages when I stood there under a desert storm, an ocean of sand on either side of me.
And when I brought the lightning down, when it sparked down from the sky toward me, there was only one thought in my head.
You won’t take them from me.
The lightning struck me, entering through my head, snapping across my brain, down the back of my neck until it settled in my chest, wrapping itself around my heart. It was mine, and it’d always been there, but this was the first time I’d actually called it to myself, however unconsciously. Three times I’d been lightning-struck: once by Dark wizards on a dusty road on the way to a dragon’s keep, once by the wizard Randall in an attempt to make a point, and now.