Depth

by Emily Thompson

  “Blimey,” Rodney said, shaking his head. “Yes, I’d like to help you in any way I can. After all, it’s not every day you get to save a princess.”

  When Twist and his entourage walked confidently past the advanced Rook exploration group, Rodney happily explained that Twist and Jonas already knew where to find the central hub of the city. Captain Enzo, Mitchel, and a number of other Rooks joined Twist and the others, hurrying to keep up. Enzo called back to the men he’d left behind, telling them to begin mapping the city nearest the dock.

  “Why didn’t you tell us you already knew this city so well?” Enzo asked Twist as they walked through the clean, open, glowing city streets.

  “I assumed Aden had told you,” Twist said. “He knew Jonas and I have been here before.”

  Walking these silent, pristine, and empty streets under the black dome of dark sea once again, Twist easily recalled his last visit. He, Jonas, and Idris had led Storm along this same path. The boy had been bound and carefully watched after he’d captured Idris and then wished them all there in the first place. Twist still had a hard time believing that the boy had actually tried to kill both him and Jonas. But then, of course, he hadn’t been a boy at all but a homicidal satyr imposter.

  Twist glanced over his shoulder at Kima as she followed behind him and Jonas. Her eyes were wide with silent amazement as she looked up at the black sea above. Twist followed her gaze to see the long, shifting tentacles of an enormous squid swim by and then vanish again into the darkness.

  “No wonder you were able to open the door to the dock so easily,” Enzo mused, obviously not noticing the behemoth. “Is there anything else about this place that you can tell me?”

  “Like what?” Twist asked.

  “The location of the armory would be quite useful,” Enzo said.

  “There’s an armory?” Jonas asked.

  “Well, according to legend, there is,” Rodney answered. “It’s said to be filled with fantastic weaponry unlike anything else in history.”

  “Of course there is…” Jonas grumbled.

  “The Rooks already have things like that,” Niko mentioned, his tone grim. “There’s no use in trying to keep any more power from Aden’s hands. The best thing to do is to just stay the hell out of his way. He can only fight so many battles at once.”

  Enzo, Rodney, and the other Rooks looked confused by this advice.

  “He’s as charming as a fox, and just as wise,” Kima added. “I agree with Niko.”

  “I don’t know about foxes being wise,” Jonas said with a frown. “But then, Vane is probably the village idiot. Either way, we’re going to have to find a way out of Aden’s grasp, once this is all over,” he said to Twist. “If you see any opportunities, do let me know immediately.”

  Twist nodded. “But we’re not worried about Aden. He’s just a human being.”

  Jonas chuckled at this, the buzz in Twist’s neck blushing with the warmth of pride.

  “Aren’t you our allies?” Enzo asked skeptically.

  “I’ve got nothing against you, old chap,” Jonas answered. “I just hate your boss and everything you stand for. As long as you’re civil, we’re good.”

  “I see,” Enzo muttered, appearing highly unnerved.

  The other Rooks seemed hesitant to comment, and Rodney took the first opportunity to change the subject. He began to speak of how the mission they were currently on paralleled many quests in old legends, endeavoring to rescue a fair princess from the clutches of evil beings. Happy to not be forced to add anything to Rodney’s dissertation, Twist remained quiet and let the man talk as he wished.

  Rodney soon began to label each of those in the party as archetypal characters. He counted himself the herald, the figure in the story that told the heroes what needed doing. Niko, he said, fit the role of antihero, a character who didn’t appear to be a hero but still strove for good ultimately. Niko glowered at him for this assessment but didn’t say anything in response. Kima was given the role of silent assassin, the character who is neither good nor bad, not directly related to the hero’s quest, but just as deadly as she was silent. Kima frowned, but she didn’t respond either.

  Twist was distressed to be called the hero of their company. He’d read many adventure stories in his life and felt he knew a thing or two about heroes. They tended to be brave, steadfast, and righteous, along with being adept at fighting and possessing sharp minds. He saw nothing in himself that was usually necessary in a hero except for his current need to rescue his princess. Jonas, he thought, fit the role much more easily than he did.

  “And you, sir, would be the plucky sidekick,” Rodney said brightly to Jonas.

  “The hell I am!” Jonas snarled.

  “But that’s a wonderful person to be!” Rodney said, appearing frightened at Jonas’s reaction. “Everyone loves the plucky sidekick. He’s the hero’s greatest support and usually ends up saving him at some point in the journey. He’s the heart of the story.”

  “Go head, keep calling me plucky,” Jonas growled, brandishing a fist. “I’ll show you some damned pluck!”

  “I meant no offense!” Rodney turned desperately to Twist. “Please, help me explain.”

  “You just accused a sky pirate of filling the role of comic relief,” Twist said sadly. “Nothing in this world can save you now.”

  Niko nodded somberly to Rodney, as if his doom was sealed. Kima chuckled despite herself.

  Rodney looked back to Jonas fearfully. With his goggles on over his eyes, Jonas was able to stare all of his hatred and malice directly at Rodney, through the blind, merciless black lenses. Rodney stepped swiftly to Enzo’s other side, putting the captain between himself and the angry pirate as they continued to walk.

  “Will you just look at that!” Enzo said loudly.

  Twist smirked at such a simple distraction, but the captain had actually found something worthy of note. A wide, open, circular plaza of white stone now stretched out before them. The tall, domed rotunda at the center stood easily fifty feet high. Twist stepped under it and stared upward with a frown.

  The last time he and Jonas had been here, a statue and a control panel had stood on a circular floor at the base of the columns. Twist had used the controls to lift the floor up into the dome, creating a closed, hemispherical room at the top. As far as he knew, the only way into the dome was to ride the floor up inside. At the moment, however, the bottom of the dome was solid and smooth, and the floor at the bottom of the columns was featureless.

  “How do you suppose we get up there this time?” Jonas asked, seeing the same problem that Twist did.

  “No idea,” Twist answered, crossing his arms. The last time they had been inside the dome, Idris the djinn had magicked them out. There didn’t appear to be any stairs or ladder up to the dome, and there didn’t seem to be any openings in the underside of the floor above.

  “We need to get up there, then?” Enzo asked.

  “All of the systems in this city flow through the panels and controls inside that dome,” Twist answered. “Last time, that floor was down here, and we simply rode it up to get inside.”

  “Well, how did you get out again?” Rodney asked.

  “Djinn magic,” Twist answered casually.

  Rodney chuckled. “Yes, of course. But seriously, if you were inside there before, how did you get out again?”

  Twist frowned at him. “Djinn magic.”

  “But…” Rodney began, his smirk dimming into seriousness. “Djinns aren’t real.”

  “And I suppose you don’t believe in dragons, either,” Twist grumbled.

  Rodney started back, clearly confused.

  “We should be able to get inside,” Enzo said, pulling out his pocket watch. He opened the face of it, which was already glowing with a soft blue light, and then began to speak into it.

  Less than one hour later, a caravan of large, heavy machines with big rubber tires and growling engines had arrived in the plaza. The Rooks who had been riding inside the
se monstrosities emerged and began to set up some sort of camp. They worked efficiently, unloading supplies, tools, and strange mechanical contraptions that were nothing Twist could easily identify. A makeshift scaffolding was hastily constructed, reaching right up to the underside of the dome’s floor, and the Rooks set about trying to create an opening in the smooth stone.

  Twist and his companions watched the activity from one side, trying to stay out of the way as best they could. Enzo and the other Rooks had joined in to help the newcomers, but Rodney remained beside Twist and the others. Standing in one place now, with nothing to do but wait for the Rooks to finish their work, Twist fought the urge to pace about like a caged animal.

  “I hate waiting like this,” Twist mentioned after a long pause. “I feel like I should be doing something.”

  “She’s going to be fine,” Jonas said.

  “But she isn’t fine right now,” Twist grumbled. “She’s likely terrified. There’s no telling what those creatures are doing…” He forced his words to stop as panic and hopelessness threatened to overwhelm him.

  Jonas put his hand on Twist’s shoulder, spilling soothing, cool fog into his Sight, along with a comforting weight. “Myra isn’t as fragile as she seems,” he said with measured calm. “She’s strong, level headed, and smart. She’s probably more worried about you than herself right now.”

  Twist smiled weakly at this idea. “She has Tasha as well, I know. But even if they are both quite capable women, it doesn’t make it any easier to just stand here being useless.”

  “You are building your strength,” Kima said to Twist. “Like pulling back the string of a bow. Your tension now will make you strike your target all the faster, the moment you are let loose.”

  Twist looked to her, surprised. “I never thought of it like that.”

  “It’s the only way I can think of it,” Kima replied. “Or I would have lost my mind years ago.”

  Twist silently realized what she truly meant. Kima felt that she had been standing around doing nothing for most of her son’s life, while the imposter had been tormented by Cyphers and while her true son had been at the mercy of the exact same creatures that had stolen Myra and Tasha away. Even an hour or two in that tormented mental space was tightening every nerve in Twist’s being and making him fear he would lose what sanity he still had. He couldn’t imagine having to suffer years of it. Nonetheless, Kima was now offering him comfort.

  “Thank you,” he muttered, feeling the words were wholly inadequate.

  “It won’t be long now,” she said, with all the stoic strength of a mythical hero.

  Twist felt reassured to realize that Rodney’s labeling had been way off. Not just Jonas—Kima too was much better suited to the role of hero than Twist was. Kima looked up again to where the Rooks were drilling into the underside of the dome. Following her gaze, Twist could see that they had almost completed a circular cut. Once it was complete, the hole would be large enough for a man to pass through.

  Just as she’d guessed, it didn’t take much longer at all for the Rooks to complete their work. Aden arrived in the plaza just as Twist saw the cut-out chunk of stone slip free of the hole and land in a pile of rubble on the top level of the scaffold. Aden approached Twist with a smile.

  “All right, Twist,” he said, stopping before him. “You told me that you could control the whole city from up there. Now’s the time for you to prove it. What I need first is a clear map of the city. Do you think you can manage that?”

  Twist noted the expectant and casual air—and the obvious evidence that Aden was far more interested in exploring the city than he was in freeing anyone from evil fairies. He considered shouting at the man until he put his priorities back into order and then wondered if it might be more helpful to threaten to refuse to give Aden any help at all until Myra was safe before silently remembering what both Tasha and Niko had advised. Perhaps Twist could get what he needed without confrontation of any kind.

  “I’ll see what I can do,” Twist said to Aden, careful to keep any true lies from his words. “But it will take me a moment to figure out the system again. It’s very complex.”

  Aden nodded. “That’s perfectly reasonable.”

  Twist focused very hard to keep his deceptive intent hidden as he and his friends, as well as Rodney and Aden, all headed to the scaffolding. When Aden’s back was turned, Jonas risked shooting a swift but approving smile at Twist. Emboldened by his friend’s silent understanding, Twist began to climb the scaffolding and did his utmost to keep the height and shakiness of the structure from frightening him too badly.

  Twist pulled himself up through the rough hole in the stone floor, into the dimly lit dome. The glass panels that filled the dome’s walls and ceiling still glowed in their soft blues and whites, showing a variety of information. Twist was startled to find the chains—which had once held he and Jonas helplessly to the floor while Storm had leveled a gun at each of them—still sitting on the floor to one side. A sudden and unexpected sting of sickening fear prickled in his memory, but he pushed it away. He’d survived, after all. It had been Myra who had saved him then. Now it was his turn to repay her.

  “Good heavens,” Aden whispered in disbelief as he looked at the glowing lights all around him. “This place is just as marvelous as you said.”

  “This is just as the stories said it would be,” Rodney added with great excitement.

  Twist noticed that once he and his companions had entered through the hole, more Rooks came streaming inside as well. If he was going to find what he needed, he’d have to act quickly. Without responding to Aden’s amazement, Twist moved to the closest patch of wall. He pressed his hands to the cool glass panels before him and pushed his Sight into the labyrinthine web of systems and information.

  His mind filled to the brim with the pulsing life that filled the whole of the city around him. He saw through every electric eye, felt the warm purr of every inch of glowing light, and sensed countless machines and contraptions that he couldn’t hope to identify with words. For a moment he only waited silently, letting his attention unfold into this massive new space. Then, he began to search the city. Rodney had called it a gate, a portal between worlds. Twist’s attention flitted quickly over everything in reach of his Sight, searching for anything that might fit that description.

  He found thousands of doors, sealed or otherwise. He found many more small openings to the sea outside. He even found that there was a hidden control at the base of the columns that would have lowered the floor under his feet back down to the ground, but it wasn’t of much use to him now. Twist discovered countless things, but nothing that seemed like a gate between worlds. Frustrated, he opened his eyes and backed away from the panels with a rough shove.

  “No luck?” Jonas asked.

  “There’s too bloody much!” Twist grumbled. Out of the network of Atlantean systems, his mind felt numb and weak, and he raised his hands to hold his weary head steady. “I can’t find anything in all of that.”

  “Take it easy,” Jonas cautioned, coming closer.

  He stood before Twist and pulled Twist’s hands down. Confused by this, Twist only stared back at him with a frown. Jonas put his own hands where Twist’s had been and began to gently rub at his temples while staring into Twist’s eyes with his own heavy lavender gaze. The effect on Twist’s Sight was instant and divine. Twist felt his spirit relax deeply into the cool fog that rushed into his weary thoughts and found himself letting out a long sigh.

  Jonas smiled at Twist’s reaction and after a moment moved his hands to rest lightly on Twist’s shoulders. “Now,” he said, once Twist’s mind cleared of most of the fog. “Is there a list of the technology in this city?”

  “A list?” Twist asked.

  “Well, if they were working on a lot of things at once, which they probably were, there must be some kind of list of what it all was.”

  “Hang on.” Twist turned away and lifted one hand, pressing it to the nearest piece of glowing
glass. He searched in the systems of the dome itself and swiftly discovered something promising. A quick adjustment of a nearby control filled a large section of glass above in the curve of the dome with an orderly list of information.

  “Damn,” Twist spat, looking at the list. “That’s not even close to English.”

  “Sato!” Aden called suddenly to the group of Rooks that were still entering the dome through the hole.

  One of them hurried closer. His clean, angular features, dark hair and eyes, and the sound of his name all reminded Twist instantly of some of the East Asian people he’d encountered before. When the man joined them, Aden pointed to the list Twist had produced.

  “Can you read that?” Aden asked.

  Sato looked over the list thoughtfully for a moment. “I’ve never seen this language before,” he said finally, his accent thin but still confirming Twist’s assumption that the man must be from Japan. Twist silently congratulated himself for guessing correctly.

  “But can you read it?” Aden asked again.

  “Oh yes,” Sato said. “It’s just that it’s very interesting. The structure is ancient and totally unrelated to the other major ancient languages.”

  “Lovely,” Aden said with a smile that didn’t look forced. “Could you tell us what this says, please?”

  “It’s a list,” Sato answered. “I don’t know exactly how to translate some of the items into English, though.”

  “Do any of them say anything about a gate?” Jonas asked.

  “A gate?” Sato asked, looking over the list thoughtfully again.

  “It could be a portal or a doorway,” Rodney offered.

  “Well,” Sato said, gesturing up toward one of the items, “that one says something about a gate to the sea. It could be the door we opened to get the submersible into the dock.”

  “Any others?” Jonas asked.

  “Twist?” Aden asked. “Have you found a map yet?”

  Twist didn’t answer.

  “This one is very odd,” Sato mentioned, gesturing to another item. “It’s talking about a door to another place. The words are hard to translate. A spirit world? No, that’s not it. Something like dreams…”