Depth
Page 17
Jonas took a thoughtful breath, his face a mask of trepidation. “If you did, they’d be much more likely to help us. They’ve practically figured it out already. You may as well save time.”
Twist tried to swallow his rising anxiety, but his throat felt as if it were full of sand. Myra needed him, he reminded himself desperately. He managed to get his feet moving again, and his friends followed beside him. Some of the people in the group were getting up from their seats, talking about their arrival in Atlantis, when Twist reached them.
“Hello,” he began.
Every face turned to him and their expressions turned cold. The woman who’d first accosted him at the Sight circle rose to her feet, looking at Twist as if she were frightened that he might run away again.
“Hello, again,” she said hopefully. “You came back.”
“Yes, well…” Twist muttered, suddenly unsure how to begin. “You see, the thing is…well, we were rather startled before. You see, this man and I,” he said with a gesture to Jonas, “are only now becoming aware of…the legend that we seem to be a part of. It’s all rather confusing and, honestly, frightening.”
The coldness in the faces around them changed to intrigue, suspicion, and in some cases, hope.
“What makes you think you’re part of any legend?” asked the man who’d licked Jonas’s tattoo. “You’ve shown us nearly nothing to make us believe that you are. Anyone could get that tattoo, you know.”
Twist held his breath, listening carefully for any indication that the man might say anything to get himself snatched away. When he remained unsnatched, Twist let out his breath and then reached into his waistcoat pocket. The woman in black made a tiny gasp, guessing at what he intended. Twist hesitated, knowing well what would come when he revealed his watch. He steeled his courage, thinking of Myra once again, and drew his pocket watch out into the light.
The group with unanimous alarm, many of them going pale at the sight of the engraving. Every ounce of Twist’s being wanted to retreat from this hellish attention. He put his watch away, but he held his ground. Jonas’s hand came to rest lightly on his shoulder, offering comfort and support as the soothing white fog nestled into the edges of Twist’s thoughts.
“How old—” one of them asked, still struggling to believe what she saw.
“No!” Twist gasped, putting up his hands to silence her. “Please. You must be careful. People on this ship who speak of our legend are being taken away.”
A frightened gasp swept over the crowd.
“They’ve found you?” a man asked. “How? How did this happen?”
“Someone said my name,” Twist answered, his voice weaker than he wanted it to be.
“Someone knows it?” another asked.
“He was Sighted,” Twist explained. “He could see my name, and he said it. He was the first one to be taken. But others have gone missing as well. Aden doesn’t want a panic, so he hasn’t made this public knowledge yet. But now they’ve taken my friend and my…” Twist paused, feeling a bit dizzy as he readied himself to speak on. He forced the words out nonetheless. “They’ve taken my fiancée.” His voice broke on the last word, but he didn’t stop. “I must find a way to get to her. I need your help to save her.”
The woman who’d felt his aura earlier—arguably his most fervent follower—moved closer with a piteous expression but thankfully didn’t reach out to him. “Oh, you poor dear. Yes, of course, we will do all we can to help you. Won’t we?” she asked the others.
“If they’re being honest with us,” said the man who’d licked Jonas’s tattoo, his eyes alight with suspicion. “Anyone who knows the legend could get a watch engraved.”
“But they’re the right age, as well,” said the woman in black. “And his Sight is too strong,” she added, pointing at Twist. “He said so. He can’t stand to be touched.”
“What about yours, then?” asked another, looking to Jonas.
His goggles on over his eyes, Jonas appeared to stare back at the young man who’d asked. “I wear these goggles to keep from seeing things. I have no control over my Sight.”
A murmur rippled through the others.
“Can I see your watch again?” asked the young woman with the piercing gaze.
The others fell silent, watching. Twist pulled his watch out of his pocket again and showed her the engraved cover. She stared at it intently for a moment before her face paled and her eyes went wide in shock.
“That magic…” she muttered distantly, before turning to the others. “It’s real. I’m sure of it. This is the witch’s son!”
Shock broke over them all. They looked at Twist and Jonas in amazement and awe, while Kima and Niko stood to the side, practically invisible.
“Please!” Twist gasped, hearing his horrible title once again. “Be careful! They can’t hear us,” he said with a nod to Jonas, “thanks to our charms, but…”
“Oh, don’t worry,” the man said, gesturing to his lapel, where the small, silver, coin-like charm was pinned. “We are invisible to the fae. It takes gypsy blood magic to make people silent to them as well, but one need only carry this charm to make himself invisible. You can’t take what you can’t see.”
The others nodded, as if this were an obvious truth, and Twist noticed many of them absently glance at or touch at charms that they all wore like jewelry. Twist let out his held breath in relief to hear this. Almost instantly, however, a porter who had been walking close beside the group vanished suddenly into thin air. The group gasped once again in horror.
Jonas spat a curse and took hold of Kima’s hand. “Have you got two more of those things?” he asked the enthusiasts. “Our two friends here aren’t protected.”
“These really work,” another woman murmured, looking at her necklace in awe.
“Two?” a younger man asked. “I have one extra,” he said, producing an engraved silver coin from a pocket. Twist noted that another charm was pinned to his cravat.
“Here, I have another one,” a woman said, removing a bracelet bearing a charm from around her wrist, while Twist spotted a charm hanging around her neck on a chain.
“Thank you,” Jonas said, holding out his hands to them.
The enthusiasts offered their tokens without hesitation, and Jonas gave one each to Niko and Kima. Niko looked at the coin Jonas had given him skeptically but slipped it into his pocket nonetheless. Kima put the bracelet around her wrist with a word of thanks to Jonas and the woman who had offered it.
“There, now we’re safe,” said the woman in black. “Now, tell us. How can we help you to rescue your fiancée, witch’s son? Did she vanish just like that man did?”
A mixture of excitement and anxiety wafted over the enthusiast as Twist answered her. Until today, he’d never felt at all threatened by evil fairies. He hadn’t even actually believed in them. The idea of fairy tales and legends being of use seemed utterly absurd, but he had no other source of information at all. At least he knew that the charms did, in fact, seem to offer protection. Questions of how that could possibly work, however, dissolved quickly into confusion in his mind.
But then again, at the moment, all he really needed was Myra’s rescue. He would have to push aside all thoughts of rationality until after Myra was safe beside him again. He could only hope that he’d find some sort of escape from these people and their obvious interest in him, once all was said and done.
Thanks to a few of the Sighted Rooks, finding a suitable entrance to Atlantis was easy. One of the porters approached Twist, where he still stood with the legend enthusiasts, and told him that his presence was required with the landing party. Apparently, Aden believed that there was a way to bring the huge submersible under the dome of the city and wanted Twist to help in the process.
“I guess it’s time you earn your keep,” Jonas said to him bitterly.
“But what about…?” Twist began, glancing to the legend enthusiasts, who stood watching him with Kima, Niko, and Jonas.
“I’ll st
ay,” Jonas said with a shrug. “You go do what Aden wants before he gets pissy.”
The others seemed surprised by Jonas’s assessment of the situation, but none of them spoke up to correct him. Niko and Kima, however, quite obviously tried not to chuckle derisively. Twist gave a sigh as he agreed to follow the porter away, leaving the others behind. At least, Twist consoled himself, he already knew what to expect from Atlantis and knew it was nothing beyond his expertise.
The porter took him down to the belly of the ship, where a thick crowd was already forming around the stacked crates and massive machines. Twist gritted his teeth and focused his will as he followed the porter all of the way through the crowd to the back of the ship. Thankfully, he managed to dodge everyone in the crowd without mishap.
Twist followed the porter through a door marked “authorized personnel only” to find what he instantly recognized as a large moon pool room. Two small submersibles already sat bobbing on the surface of the exposed ocean in the large circular opening in the floor. Twist was instantly struck by the chill of the air and the thick, salty scent of the sea. Rook sailors moved about the room with purpose, obviously loading the two submersibles and making them both ready for departure.
The porter introduced Twist to a Rook sailor—who looked to be about the same age as Twist—as the captain of the ship Twist would be riding in and the leader of the landing party. Twist would have thought a man would at least be going gray before taking on the title of captain, but he refrained from comment. This Rook did manage to carry himself with a certain level of authority despite his youth.
“You’re the one who can work any machine?” the captain asked Twist.
Twist nodded.
“Good,” the captain said. “We’re going to need you. Go ahead and board that ship, if you’re ready.”
Twist glanced at the men around him, all clad in rugged uniforms, sturdy boots, and not a single top hat between them. Twist suddenly felt rather overdressed. Apparently noticing this too, the porter who had led Twist into the room hadn’t yet left him.
“Would you like me to take your hat, sir?” the porter asked.
Twist thanked him, handing the porter his top hat while tossing his cravat into it. Now, as prepared as he ever was for physical danger, his walking stick still in hand, Twist headed for the smaller submersible. He climbed up over the thin metal railing that hung over the open hatch in the top of the small craft and down inside.
The interior of the ship was cramped and dark, with pipes hanging overhead and standing out from the walls, along with innumerable controls, gauges, and flywheels. A strong but constant humming sound filled the air, and Twist felt a slight vibration in the ship as well. There were four small leather seats, which seemed to have shoulder and lap straps to hold the passengers in place. Twist’s apprehensions rose at the sight of them, wondering how likely violent motions would be on his journey.
Another Rook sailor was already seated in one of the two front seats, adjusting the controls before him. He glanced back at Twist and offered a swift greeting. Twist returned it as he took one of the seats in the rear.
There was a small porthole window in the wall just to the right of Twist, through which he could only see the hull of the larger submersible outside. The front of the craft was filled with a large bubble of glass that showed little else at the moment as well. While Twist employed his best logic to make sense of the straps on his seat, he heard the sound of laughter through the hatch up above.
A moment later, another man began to climb down into the ship. Rodney Campbell turned to look about the craft with a wide smile and then gave an exclamation of amazement when his gaze found Twist.
“Well, hello there!” he said, his voice entirely too loud for the small space. “You’re coming along with us, are you?”
His strong Scottish accent seemed to make his voice sound louder to Twist, who involuntarily winced to hear the syllables bounce off of the walls. Twist was silently thankful for the thin walkway between the seats, which gave him just enough space to not have to fear an accidental touch.
“So it would seem,” Twist responded, forcing a smile onto his face.
“That’s just grand,” Rodney said, looking to the man in the front seat. “How’re ya, Mitchel?” he asked with a friendly pat on the man’s shoulder.
“Fine, fine,” Mitchel responded happily. “Have a seat, Rodney. The captain should be here in a minute.”
“Yeah, I just saw him,” Rodney said, moving to the seat beside Twist. “Apparently, it’s just ‘Lorenzo,’ these days.”
“He’ll answer to ‘Captain’ too,” Mitchel replied, “But call him ‘Enzo’ at your own peril.”
“Ah, he’s just touchy about how young he looks,” Rodney said, reaching for the straps on his seat. He frowned at them, tugging awkwardly. “Say, how do these things go?”
Having worked it out fairly well already, Twist offered advice, which Rodney accepted gladly. He’d just about managed to strap himself in when the captain began to climb down into the ship. He glanced at the others, muttered an “all aboard” to himself, and then closed and sealed the hatch before slipping into the empty seat at the front of the ship.
Mitchel touched a control in the panel before him and spoke toward it. “Landing Party One, ready to depart.”
A moment later, a distorted voice responded from the panel. “Landing Party Two, ready.”
“Let’s go,” the captain said, nodding to Mitchel.
Mitchel nodded back, touching the control and talking at it again. “Launch in three.”
The humming sound in the air rose sharply, and three seconds later Twist felt the ship begin to descend. The moment the craft slipped past the outer hull of the larger submersible, the view beyond the front window filled with Atlantis. The light of the city under the glass dome brightened the sea around it with an unearthly azure glow.
Twist instantly recognized the strange light of the scrawling lines of light that covered the city streets and many of the buildings’ walls, but he was surprised to find that from afar they all appeared to create a single, continuous, decorative pattern. From this angle, he thought it looked something like a giant squid.
“Would you just look at that…” Rodney said softly, his face awash with amazement.
“There’s the opening,” the captain said, pointing to a dark patch in the nearly black seabed. “Take point and lead them in.”
Mitchel nodded. Almost instantly, the ship began to move forward, gliding toward the apparent opening in the seafloor. Twist only absently noticed that the other ship seemed to follow along on their right.
He glanced upward into the shadows of the sea above. Here in this tiny metal ship, Twist suddenly realized that the whole of the ocean was standing right on top of them, so deep that not even the slightest glimmer of sunlight could ever reach them. An unfamiliar flicker of claustrophobia whispered in his heart, not at all abated by the small black tunnel that the little ship was preparing to enter.
The tiny electric lights at the nose of the ship tossed glinting flashes and shifting shadows through the tunnel, making it difficult for Twist make much sense of the space. Mitchel, however, didn’t seem to have any trouble guiding the little craft through slight turns and eventually upward into a large underwater cavern. Mitchel peered up into the shadows and gave a thoughtful sound. “Captain, I think I can see a dock up there.”
“Go for it,” the captain responded.
Mitchel nodded and brought the ship slowly farther up. Twist squinted into the near blackness above them, but his eyes found nothing that looked at all like a dock. The ship suddenly bobbed gently, making Twist wonder if they had reached an invisible air pocket. Mitchel pulled the ship to a complete stop and instructed the panel before him on how to dock, giving indications as he watched the other ship move beside them.
“All right, sir,” Mitchel said to the captain. “I don’t know what kind of air is out there, but I think we’re docked.”
“Hold on there, Enzo!” Rodney said, sounding startled. “Where’s my mask?”
“Under your seat,” Mitchel answered, clearly struggling to hold back a grin while the captain only paused in clear annoyance at the name and refrained from responding at all.
Twist found a gas mask under his own seat and hurriedly put it on. He fit the stiff leather straps around the back of his neck and head and was startled by how difficult it was to breathe through the filter that now covered his nose and mouth. What air he did manage to pull through the filter smelled strongly of charcoal and nearly made him retch. He hadn’t encountered any foul air in Atlantis the last time he’d been there, but all the same, he supposed it was better to be safe than sorry. Maybe the air in this cavern wasn’t clean.
As soon as everyone was ready, the captain opened the hatch and climbed out of the ship. Twist felt a rush of cold, moist air flow instantly into the ship. Up above, the captain fell totally silent for a long moment. The only sounds Twist now heard were the rhythmic rasping sounds of the men beside him breathing through their masks and the soft hum of the ship’s engines.
“All right,” the captain called down to them, his voice now clear and unmuffled by the mask. “Come on out. This air is clean enough to breathe.”
“Really?” Rodney asked, frowning.
“Come along, Rodney,” Mitchel said, pulling his own mask off of his face.
Mitchel conveyed the information about the air to the panel before him, receiving a verbal confirmation in response. Twist happily removed his mask and followed Rodney up and out of the ship to find himself now in a vast, black cavern. His eyes could only make out the shape of the submersible by the light that came through its windows and the two lights at its nose. A simple-looking jetty reached out into the water from some unseen source in the darkness. The other submersible had docked just beside them, on the other side of the jetty.