Under a Veil of Gods

by R. Anthony Giamusso

  “How did you do all of this?” Anna asked, knowing that she might not even understand the answer.

  Suddenly Burton’s face froze.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  “Something has changed. Someone’s here.”

  The sound of the screeching pulley that lowered the bucket into the well echoed through the cavern.

  “Go, Anna! Now,” Burton said. “They will take you back to Demitri.”

  “Go? Where is there to go?” she asked.

  Burton took her firmly by the arm and directed her back to the open space near the water’s edge. Anna could see the torches at the top and the bucket as it lowered, but she didn’t know who was coming down.

  “To the real city of Mern,” Burton said, “Find your family and convince them to help fight this war.”

  “Oh. No, no! I can’t swim…and…and you said this went miles down. I’d never survive,” Anna said.

  “You don’t have to swim,” Burton said. He pointed to the water, “Look.”

  As Anna looked through the glossy surface, she saw the same creature that she had been seeing at The Ponds and streams since she came to Ikarus; water birds. She was relieved that Indrid was wrong about her hallucinating.

  The ruckus from above got louder.

  Then, in her mind, she heard Rayne telling her, I would never let you drown. And the sound of her stepbrother’s soft voice made Anna’s fears vanish. She jumped into the water.

  Through the murk she could see the waterbird, a large relative of the goby fish, staring back at her. It was twice her size. When it rubbed its fins against her, she took hold of its dorsal fin, and it swam down into the black depths. Her heart raced and her breath became short. Before she inhaled the water, another waterbird swam alongside and kissed her with its giant algae-sucking lips, leaving a bubble filled with air that surrounded her entire body. Suddenly, Anna could breathe again.

  The waterbird then pushed the bubble all the way down to where the caverns met the Mern Sea. The large goby moved fast, using a suction cup on its belly to shove off of corals and rocks to fight against the deep currents. They approached a light Anna saw from miles away, glowing in pitch darkness. When they got close, Anna realized that it was a massive coral reef and the rocks that shaped the structure glimmered, even in the depths without sunlight.

  The waterbird stopped and let Anna’s bubble go. The bottom of it dragged across the sand floor as she drifted with the water’s current. The giant reef was all around her. Now that she was up close, Anna saw that it was shaped like a webbed dome. Millions of fish swam through a complex system of tunnels through the bioluminescent reef.

  Anna realized she was inside the real Mern, the city under the sea. Burton was telling the truth—the stories were real. People had evolved to adapt to life underwater. The kingdom above secretly took orders from the true maidens of the Mern islands.

  A woman with feather-like fins swam gracefully towards her from the center tunnel, shimmering just like the reef. She was beautiful. Her hair was long and golden like Anna’s but much lighter and shinier. Her eyes were ice blue, her skin white. When the woman came within feet of Anna, her smile looked familiar. Anna had seen it before. She was certain of it.

  “Hello,” Anna said.

  The woman’s smile turned. Anna thought she had upset her.

  “I am Anna Lott. I was born in Mern and I am now a citizen of the Ikarus kingdom.”

  As her golden hair flowed with the water, the woman wore a look of confusion and she seemed to be getting more upset. Without another word, the woman pushed her finger through Anna’s bubble and pulled it back out again. Water slowly filled to the top before popping completely. Anna was holding her breath again and the woman did nothing to help her.

  Anna gave in and inhaled. But when the water filled her lungs, it didn’t drown her. It was like liquid air that she could breathe.

  “Anna Lott. You are not just a Mern,” the sparkling woman said. “I am Glassinger—Glassinger Lott, a maiden of Mern. And you’re my daughter. I remember watching you swim at Mile Beach. I would come up to the sand bar and smile at your little toes. I’ve wanted to meet you for so long.”

  My mother, she thought. Anna could see herself in Glassinger’s eyes. “If I can breathe water, then how did I almost drown as a child?”

  “Out of fear. Because your mind told you that people cannot breathe underwater. You held your breath until you blacked out, then, lying on the sand bottom, you started breathing. I was there. I watched you. You looked so beautiful, sleeping beneath the surface. Then after about a half hour, the land-dwellers pulled you out. There are many things I need to explain to you.”

  “Burton Lang explained everything,” Anna said.

  “Then I’m sure he told you that we abandoned the rest of the world,” Glassinger said. Her glow dimmed as if she was perturbed by the mention of Burton.

  “No. He did not.”

  “I was a part of the Divine Alliance, the Resistance, until I realized that my involvement could jeopardize the secrecy of our city beneath the sea. No one knew of our kingdom and the few that did couldn’t reach it if they tried. Burton sent Gabriel Volpi to Naan and the Nekrums followed. It’s Burton’s fault that the Nekrums are here. I renounced my oath to fight. The sky monsters are no threat to what they can’t see,” said Glassinger.

  “Burton told me that they come from another world,” Anna said.

  “Yes,” Glassinger confirmed.

  “If they can travel the heavens, then they surely have the capability of finding you,” Anna said. “No one is safe. You can either fight now and end the war, or hide. They will never stop hunting you down.”

  Glassinger seemed to have her mind already made up. “I have kept out of the mages’ affairs for centuries and I intend to keep it that way.”

  “How could you? How could you stand back while innocent people are slaughtered?” Anna asked furiously. “How can I be your daughter when I am nothing like you?”

  “My beautiful daughter, of course I don’t like to see people die, but I will not risk the exposure of this civilization. This planet is ninety percent water. Merns are native to Naan. We’ve always been here, even before Gabriel. He brought these monsters. It is Men that don’t belong here. Men belong on Enot,” said Glassinger.

  “I see. Then I guess I don’t belong here either.”

  Glassinger frowned. “Anna, don’t be silly. You are a Mern, a maiden of the great underwater city.”

  “What I don’t understand is why this is called the ‘great’ Mern city. What is so great about it? Its leader turns a blind eye to the suffering of others. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Even mothers abandon their children when another kingdom comes to take them away,” Anna said loudly. “Since I was a cousin to the royal Lott family, most of whom were slaughtered, Ikarus took me in to protect me.”

  “Careful! I didn’t abandon you,” Glassinger said. “If Burton told you the truth, then he would have told you how the Ikarus soldiers picked you up before we could get to you.”

  “We?” Anna asked.

  Glassinger’s body lit up even brighter and illuminated more of the water’s depth. The glowing city was now blinding. There were creatures everywhere; fish, water birds, whales, dolphins, and even people with webbed fingers, glossy skin, and fins across their arms and backs, all looking on. “Because we are limited to the water, it was quite difficult to reach you. But we have sent many waterbirds to patrol the rivers, lakes, and ponds to try and contact you. We are all connected telepathically here in Mern. All knowledge is shared among all creatures, similar to the technology of the Nekrums. Only our abilities are natural—organic.”

  Anna was stunned. “But when the mages attacked, how could an army of soldiers from far away get to me before my mother who was right beneath my feet?”

  “Anna,” Glassinger said, bowing to her. “Unlike you, I cannot breathe air. I only had a chance near the docks to take you before they boarded yo
u onto the ship. But you were heavily guarded and I couldn’t reach you. My love for you has remained strong, even after all of this time.”

  “I want you to understand something. I’m going back to fight this war. I have loved ones at Ikarus. And if you really love me, you will defend the kingdom that I came to call my home.”

  The finned people of Mern looked on anticipating Glassinger’s response. By their expression, Anna could tell that they wanted to fight. They wanted to fight for peace, to end the suffering of humanity for good. But Glassinger remained silent.

  Anna felt let down. If she ever had a child of her own, she would never turn her back on him or her. But just as Anna took her goby fish by the dorsal fin and began her ascent to the surface, Glassinger spoke, “If you can get Demitri’s army onto the water, we can annihilate them.”

  Relieved, Anna nodded. She’d made a hasty assumption. Her real mother would fight for her, and it felt good to know that she cared. “If I can provoke Demitri to attack us at Illyrium, he will have to cross the Origon River first. But he has more warriors still residing south in the Eire Mountains. To surround Illyrium, they will cross the Noahl from the west.”

  “We will patrol all waterways,” said Glassinger. She smiled.

  “Thank you,” Anna said before the goby ascended.

  Demitri Von Cobb could smell the lingering oils of Montague’s collection of perfumes in his chambers beneath the library. Ironic, he thought, as he stared at Gabriel’s Diary. It was the key to finding the carrier of the Volpi gene and deriving the cure from his or her blood, and it sat right in front of him on its pedestal, but he couldn’t touch it. Not without Burton Lang, the wizard who Demitri held captive in the oubliette of Illyrium. The diary looked common; old, and dusty, like it had been forgotten for centuries. It did not look like he had remembered it glowing brilliantly in Burton’s hands.

  The diary was Demitri’s last hope in serving the Nekrums to take control of humanity. He realized that Rayne Volpi couldn’t be manipulated. Demitri’s attempt at seducing him to use as a weapon had failed.

  As Demitri sat by Montague’s fireplace listening to the marble as the Nekrums telepathically discussed their plans with him, there was a knock at the door. “What is it?” he asked.

  “My lord, master,” a one-armed mage said, falling to his knees in obvious fear. “Anna Lott has gone missing from the temple.”

  A stinging fury bloomed. Demitri rose from his chair and held his marble up to the mage’s bald head. “You are incompetent, and your services are no longer required.” Within seconds, the mage’s eyes turned bloodshot. Throughout his face, veins grew like roots across his skin beading sweat. His lips, eyes, and nose swelled to the point of bleeding. Then his entire head exploded.

  There was another mage standing there, silent and wide-eyed. Blood had splattered across both her and Demitri’s faces.

  “Am I going to have to kill you as well?” Demitri asked.

  The mage said yes.

  “Then what is your bad news?”

  The mage began, quietly. Her voice shuttered. “My lord, master, king of all land and sea…” She paused.

  “Say it!” Demitri roared.

  “Montague La-Rose is also gone.”

  Demitri took the mage’s blade from her belt and slit her throat, then stomped off to the dungeons to see the empty cell.

  In the corner cell block, where Montague was held below the dining hall, was a giant hole in the ground. At the bottom, the rocks had caved in, blocking the path. There was no trace of where it led.

  Demitri had leverage, he thought. The Nekrums had leverage. But now the woman he intended to marry was missing, and the only man who could translate the diary was gone. The only people left alive who could translate it were Montague La-Rose or Burton Lang. Demitri didn’t know where Montague had gone, or who had risked their lives to collapse the ground and break him out, but he knew that Burton was at the Illyrium oubliette, quarantined to the main cavern. With a confinement spell, he’d blocked the wizard from traveling through the underground tunnels.

  Demitri looked to his officer standing at the door, “Has there been any sign of the Ikarus general, Indrid Cole?”

  “No, my lord, master. Not since the battle.”

  “He is the Graleon heir,” Demitri laughed. “He will go to Grale and claim his throne. After spoiling himself in the riches at the capital of Men, Grale won’t be enough. I’ll make him an offer his desires can’t refuse and he’ll realize that he can have more. Then, he will bring the wizard to me.”

  Demitri wrote a letter stating that he would give Indrid the Ikarus kingdom if he delivered Burton to him. He signed his name, Demitri Von Cobb the king of Men. As he finished with the last swipe of his feathered pen leaking his own, blue blood he said, “Devict De Mass!” He folded the letter and gave it to his general for his clan to deliver to Grale. “Send a pawn to meet Indrid at Illyrium to lift the spell. Now, he won’t be able to resist the temptation to gain power; to rule not only a tiny chunk of land in the middle of the sea, but lead as king of Men and live on a vast island large enough to support a hundred other kingdoms all under one’s own rule.”

  After the Nekrum agenda was complete, power and influence among mere mortals didn’t matter. In the end, Man would rule and own nothing. Humans will no longer exist. And the Nekrums were using Demitri to lead the extinction.

  The real Demitri Von Cobb, who was stuck inside the vessel, knew why the Nekrums wanted him. He was a master of the anatomy and physiology of all creatures; man, animal, and insect. Demitri had a brilliant mind and he could understand the science of organ and body splicing that the Nekrums were teaching him. He had been using this knowledge to create monsters. “I told Burton Lang that one day I would impress him.”

  The haunting voice from within him spoke.

  And you will, my child, once he sees what we have created. The wizard is weak. Give him the marble. Once we possess his body, we’ll make him watch while our army of ferocious creatures butchers the humans that he loves so much. Then, we will have access to the diary, find the Volpi gene, and exterminate this pathetic planet. The light of Burton Lang will become a weapon of darkness.

  “What is the fate of this vessel? What will happen to Demitri Von Cobb?”

  He is irrelevant.

  Montague La-Rose had been awake for three days, and he’d barely eaten. The little bread that Demitri’s pawns had given him was moldy, sometimes furry and blackened. On the third night, he finally fell asleep at the late hours in the Ikarus dungeon against the hard corner of a dusty cell. But when he woke, hours later, he was somewhere else.

  It seemed like a cave, similar to the ones Burton would take him, but with breathtaking stonework. Whoever built this strange place assembled the rocks beautifully, he thought. But the discomfort in his back told him that he had badly injured himself. If he remained still, the pain was minimal. But when he tried to move, it hurt so bad he nearly blacked out. What happened?

  There was a small fire lit beside him and a steaming pool of crystal water to his right. The floor beneath the thick cushion he was lying on was carpeted. There were small, round glass balls hanging throughout the stone space illuminating light. It felt warm and smelled clean—fresh, with the unlikely aroma of flowers and hazelnut.

  As Montague’s eyes focused, the rock that he thought was beside him was actually a head—a human head. Not a decapitated head, but a head that was still alive and breathing. There was no body underneath its large face. By the mustache and thinning hair, he assumed that the head was a man. His arms stretched out from under his ears and his feet extended out from where his neck would be on a normal person. There was a second head peeking from behind the one closer to Montague.

  “Hello,” the head said with an uneven smile.

  “Where am I?”

  “Miles beneath the surface,” said the head.

  “Forgive my ignorance, but what are you?” Montague asked.

  “Your
people know us as trolls,” he said.

  “What do I call you, master troll?”

  The head lifted his bushy eyebrows, “Master? I have never been called that before. You are too kind. I am Eggward Puft,” he bowed. “And you are Montague La-Rose of course. I have been taking care of you,” he said.

  The other troll held out his hands and gave Eggward a more crooked face than he already wore.

  “I mean, we have been taking care of you,” Eggward said, trailing off.

  “Why do I feel like my back is broken?” Montague asked.

  “We had a little accident getting you out of the Ikarus dungeon,” Eggward said, looking meanly at the other head next to him. “When we collapsed the floor you were entombed in rubble. But we dug you out. Grimm here was supposed to catch you when you came down, but he dropped you instead.”

  Picking his nose, the one called Grimm looked away ignoring what Eggward said. “Sorry,” he mumbled to Montague.

  “But don’t worry, these dansyl cloths will heal you right up,” Eggward said.

  “Gretchen,” Montague said dizzily, trying to get up.

  Eggward held him down. “Please, rest. I assure you Gretchen is safe.”

  “Are you human?” Montague asked. Despite the strange anatomy, their faces looked human.

  “We are Nekrums, Montague. And there are more of us here, beneath the ground—many more.”

  Montague examined him and he knew Eggward was telling the truth by the look in his eyes.

  “We were the first of our kind to feel empathy for another species,” Eggward said. “We abandoned the Nekrum mission. But when the humans at the time first saw us, they tried to kill us. So we stayed underground.”

  “Burton told me that there were Nekrums who had rebelled against their own kind. But he never called you ‘trolls’. He just called you his friends.”

  “We know Burton Lang very well. For five hundred years our civilization has been part of the Resistance he organized.”