The Mermaids Madness

attack.
    Snow still held a mirror in her left hand. She removed her thumb from the jar, placing the mirror over the mouth. The air spirit fought to escape, but she pushed him back. Using her magic to reach into the heart of the mirror, Snow struck the glass from within.
    The mirror crumbled to powder, glittering as it fell into the bottle. “Mirror, mirror, crushed so fine, lend strength to this spell of mine.”
    The remains of her mirror melted into the bottle. Soon both the inside and outside gleamed like quicksilver. Snow waited, but the mirror’s power held the spirit trapped. She stumbled toward Morveren, head throbbing with every step. Another of the air spirits attacked, only to be drawn into the jar.
    Morveren floated higher, this time bringing her knife toward the whip. Talia tried to stop her, but the winds knocked her against the wall, and then she was falling. She spun in the air, but the spirits slammed her to the ground too quickly. She rolled with the impact and tried to stand, only to stumble as her left ankle gave out.
    Morveren renewed her assault against Lirea. She floated closer, reaching into the tower. “Let me save you, child.”
    “Morveren!” Snow smiled. “Sometimes raw power has its place too.”
    She threw the soul jar. It spun through the air, and as it passed beneath Morveren, the spells within the jar reached out to entangle the remaining air spirits. The jar clinked against the tower wall and dropped to the ground, the mirror’s power protecting it from the impact.
    Morveren screamed as she fell, but she caught the windowsill with one hand. She pushed the cup into the tower, then pulled herself up and through the window.
    “No fair!” Snow muttered. To Talia, she asked, “Are you all right?”
    “I’m fine,” Talia snapped. “Get her.”
    Snow closed her eyes, trying to listen the way Morveren had taught her. Morveren’s magic was easy to detect. All her power was concentrated on Lirea now, digging into her thoughts and emotions.
    “You asked for this, remember?” Morveren asked. “You begged me for it. All I’ve ever done is try to give you what you wanted.”
    “No.”
    Slowly, Snow reached into Lirea’s mind. She was gentler than the last time, but Lirea still sensed her touch. Unlike before, Lirea lacked either the strength or the will to fight one more intrusion.
    Snow pressed deeper, until she began to see through the mermaid’s eyes. Morveren still held the knife in one hand. With the other, she picked up the cup and thrust it at her granddaughter. Lirea tried to push it away, but Morveren was too strong. Lirea’s hands reached out to take the cup from Morveren’s hand.
    Snow could hear Gustan raging within the cup, the sounds more animal than human. She had no doubt Lirea could hear him as well. Little remained of the Hiladi prince but anger and confusion.
    Snow tried to unravel the threads of Morveren’s control, but there were too many. Lirea twitched, her muscles rigid.
    “Drink, child,” Morveren whispered. “Drink, and be great. Be complete.”
    “I don’t want to go back,” Lirea said, but she was too weak to fight. She stared at the cup. “I didn’t want any of this.”
    So be it. Snow couldn’t break Morveren’s hold on Lirea, so she would have to try something more direct. No subtle threads of magic were these; Snow seized Lirea’s mind like a rag doll, yanking her hands back. The cup clattered to the floor and rolled toward the edge of the broken floor.
    “No!” Morveren grabbed the cup before it could fall. “You’ll destroy her mind!” She brought the cup back to Lirea, forcing it to her lips.
    Lirea wrenched away, looking toward the window. Toward Snow. “Please don’t let them take me.”
    “I won’t,” Snow whispered. She could feel Morveren tightening her grip on Lirea, expending her own strength to prevent Snow from wresting control away. Lirea whimpered as something within her tore. Slowly, Lirea’s hands moved back toward the cup.
    “Please,” Lirea whispered.
    Morveren was too strong and too skilled for Snow to fight directly. Instead, Snow simply nudged Lirea’s right arm so she reached not for the cup, but for the knife in Morveren’s other hand.
    Before Morveren could react, Lirea wrapped her hand around Morveren’s and shoved the abalone blade into her grandmother’s chest.
    “Sometimes brute power beats skill,” Snow whispered.
    The cup fell. Tears filled Morveren’s eyes. “I tried to save