by Starla Night
Bex kicked away from the ledge where they usually descended to practice by the Life Tree, toward a different wall.
Another tunnel hid behind artfully positioned coral. It was secret, all right. And narrow. A sudden current tried to pull them back to the lagoon. Dannika squeezed through, barely kicking as the tunnel enclosed them.
Worn carvings lined the tunnel curving down, down, down, and then up, up, up. Then the surface wavered overhead. They emerged in the crater.
Bex clambered onto a wide stone ledge, coughed, and gagged as she shifted back. Angie and Meg did the same, but less gracefully. Dannika was in good company as she hacked up seawater. Her nose ran and tears streamed from her eyes, but she survived.
Dannika sucked in a breath and coughed it out, then again, and she was better. “Oh, I hope this is worth it.”
Bex grinned and lifted her hand.
The massive squid loomed over them.
It had the elongated triangle mantle, two side-mounted eyes, and indeed the tentacles. Two long ones quested up the walls, but the smaller eight clutched a big round ball. A series of flat stones, kind of like seats, scattered around it. Their surfaces were cracked and broken.
Strange symbols surrounded the base.
“Are those words?” Dannika asked.
“If they are, the warriors couldn’t read them,” Meg answered. “Ugh. I feel so dumb.”
“What? Why?”
“Because Itime even told me that when the sacred brides were in trouble, they could summon the kraken with a giant bell. This is clearly the squid bell. Like, I always thought it was a little bell-like, but I’ve never needed to summon a kraken.”
“They must have made the bell before the sacred brides were taken.” Dannika walked around it on the narrow, plant-broken path. “The kraken used to be their protector. It wasn’t always a destructive force.”
“You’re right. Huh, I never thought about the original purpose.”
“These are the mirror stones.” Bex tapped the flat, cracked rocks. “Yep. Giant squid.”
Angie leaned over the big ball. “How do you suppose the bell rings?”
“Do you need to summon the kraken, Mom?” Meg teased.
“A lady is always prepared.”
They all laughed. It was nice to explore rather than sit around and feel dread.
Bex paddled to the bell and rapped on it.
Nothing happened.
“I swear it makes noise sometimes,” Meg said. “Maybe it’s clogged. Or the ringer’s under the water.”
“We’ve looked before,” Bex said.
“But that’s when we were looking for cocks and balls,” Meg reminded her. “We haven’t looked for baby squid-ringers.”
“Ringers?” Angie glanced at her highly educated daughter. “Is that the official term?”
“Clappers.” Dannika waded into the lake again. “My first husband repaired church organs. I got to know the terms for some of the other instruments.”
They descended, shifting again. Dannika forced the water back into her beleaguered lungs and rotated to tease her fingers along the wavering surface. Shifting wasn’t great, but floating as if the rippling surface was her floor and the seafloor was her ceiling? Redefining her world like that was amazing.
They clustered around the base.
“We discovered this statue when a tropical storm struck for, like, three weeks,” Meg said. “We hid in the lagoon. And then we lost baby Luk. Mom doesn’t like to talk about it.”
“I have never lost a child before or since.” Angie’s arch declaration faded into quiet sadness as she, and then they, all realized that she had lost Nuno, although she hadn’t even been in the water so it wasn’t her fault.
Meg broke the uncomfortable silence. “That was a crazy storm. Lieutenant Figuara was so worried about us he brought in a fifty-pound snapper, in secret, and made his patrol think he’d eaten the whole thing himself.”
Bex smiled.
“He was a nice man. It’s really too bad about his replacement.” Angie peered into the bell. “I wonder how it works.”
Meg trailed her fingers along the base of the bell structure. “Look at this dust. The maid will never work in this town again.”
“Isn’t the maid us?” Angie scooped out a handful of silt.
“We’ll never work in this town again,” Dannika joked, and even Bex smiled.
They cleaned off the statue, tossing out vines that had fallen in and rotted, and scraping away to bare rock.
“Lieutenant Figuara was a gentleman.” Angie reached up to her elbow into the base of the statue and forced out centuries’ worth of muck. “But that Lieutenant Orike sounds like a confused little boy. No mother, no father. No grandparents.”
“What do you mean, Mom?”
“Aren’t the Luscan warriors stolen? The younger generation, I mean. Not Itime and Prince Ankena’s generation. They knew their fathers. But that Lieutenant Orike and the others in his patrol, I’m sure I heard none of them had parents, and how can they be raised right? But warriors have to fight.” She blew out a long stream of water, making her dark hair flutter over her forehead. “They need a stern talk, not death. And now poor Lukiyo is caught up in it. He was such a sweet child. I could never use any ‘queen’ power against him.”
Wait.
Wait, wait, wait.
“That’s it,” Dannika said.
“Hmm?” Angie flicked muck off her fingers and it drifted down in the cloudy water. “What is it?”
“Your powers.” Dannika floated back, and everyone turned to look at her. “You’re afraid to use your powers.”
Angie pooh-poohed her elegantly despite being elbow-deep in the mud. “What powers?”
“You’re afraid to find out, but you can use your powers for good. To give that stern talk and stop those warriors from hurting each other.”
“I don’t see how.” Angie flexed her fingers. “I know healing isn’t my forte. And I refuse to make all the mess like a certain engineer who knocked down our coral and exposed the reef.”
Bex twisted her lips to the side.
“Then don’t. Use your power to hold back the people who would try to fight each other. Stop their attacks. Shield your sons and their enemies so they can all sit down and talk out their differences.”
Angie leveled a skeptical eye at her. “I know I’m asking a lot, but I’m not entirely delusional. These are warriors, you know. They solve things by fighting it out.”
“And you’re not a warrior. Which means that you can show them another way. A way of peaceful disagreement.”
“That’s an oxymoron.”
“But it doesn’t have to be. You can have amazing power, Angie. You just have to believe.”
And yes, Dannika knew exactly how hypocritical she sounded urging Angie to believe in herself when all of Dannika’s problems stemmed from being unable to focus.
“Just think about it,” Dannika said.
“Shield.” The tips of Angie’s fingers glowed. She studied them thoughtfully. “I suppose I could stop fights. That would be ideal, really.”
Bex made a noise. “Ah.”
Everyone clustered around her.
“Ah?” Meg repeated. “What did you find?”
She rapped a long pipe with her knuckle. “The ringer.”
“You mean clapper,” Angie said.
“If it’s outside the bell, I think it’s a mallet,” Dannika said.
Meg rolled her eyes. “Whatever it’s called, let’s gong it.”
Bex eased the long pipe through the water. It tapped the bell.
The bell resonated in Dannika’s chest like loud bass at a rock concert. “Whoa.” She rubbed her chest.
The others mirrored her, equally affected.
The echoed reverberated in a high G contrabassoon. Just like the squids’ doot-doot-doot noises.
Because of course it did. It was a squid bell.
“It’s a little flat,” Dannika said.
“How can you tell?” Meg asked, startled, and everyone stared.
“Because it doesn’t sound like a squid yet. Let’s clear off the rest of the muck.”
Somehow, this must be the key they needed.
The key to save Ciran.
And themselves.
Chapter Thirty-One
Voices vibrated above the tiny coral-lined cell of Ciran’s prison.
He peered up through the gaps in the coral.
The Life Tree of Lusca floated overhead. Spiked plates of coral armor covered its thick stalk to deter any destructive squids. They regularly emerged from the massive trench on the other side of Ciran’s prison. Squares of red mirror stones pointed at the trench, keeping the kraken confined beneath. They emitted a constant, high-pitched whine.
That was where they had thrown Prince Ankena.
And where he, Konomelu, and Itime would also be thrown.
Soon.
A strange angry scream reverberated through the city, momentarily silencing the voices.
Ciran floated to the wall of his prison closest to the trench. “What was that?”
“It is howling.” Konomelu’s vibration came weakly from the far cell. He hunched, favoring his ribs. “As we rage at the surface humans for taking our sacred brides, the kraken rages at us for taking her young fry.”
“Her young fry?”
“The ones the king lets out to harness for his attacks. They chain only one in the field. See?”
Across the distant trench, a few tentacles moved, but the coral mostly obscured Ciran’s view.
The howl died out.
A low, musical tone hummed. The same vibration had sounded when Bex had destroyed the coral barrier, only much fainter. “What is that?”
“The warning bell. The Life Tree roots around it.” Konomelu dropped silent, then summoned the strength to continue. “When the bell tolls, the sacred brides are in danger. The kraken must rise. But in their hour of greatest need, the bell never sounded, and so the kraken never rose to save them. I long wondered why, but now that I am imprisoned, I see. Someone muffled the bell.”
Ciran peered through. Was that a curve? “Dead coral has fallen on it.”
“And slabs of curved wood, like the kind humans use for their hulls, packed with mud. The mud is a red color found in distant fields. It was brought here deliberately.”
“Why did they muffle the bell?”
“Perhaps it was inconvenient. Perhaps the kraken arose even when the bell was not rung and caused damage. Perhaps…”
“Why muffle the bell if the mirror stone controls the kraken? Or does the bell overcome mirror stone?” He waited. “Lieutenant Konomelu?”
“I do not know.”
Itime groaned from his cell and then fell silent again.
The voices sounded louder again.
“Someone is coming. Not the king.” Konomelu wheezed urgently. “You escape. I will…I will make a distraction. Prepare to fight.”
“Your drive to free me, while admirable, is doomed to fail. Rest yourself, Lieutenant.”
Konomelu, and Itime in the cell between them, had barely survived the beating. The warriors had attacked them with pent up rage from years of hate.
Ciran was in better shape, but he could not escape the city alone.
“You will see the truth in time,” a confident young male declared as he floated down to the prison. “Lusca is unstoppable. No warrior stands against us, no human dares to hunt us, and we follow no rules but our own. Pledge yourself to our king and become a true warrior.”
The speaker floated in front of Ciran’s cell.
He was an older Hadali with darker brown hair, a fiercer expression, and a filled out, adult body. Luscan tattoos crossed his torso and shoulders, the markings of having completed the first levels of training and become a warrior.
But on his chest, over his heart, a different style of tattoo was still just visible.
It was a phoenix.
“Lukiyo,” Ciran murmured.
The young male turned imperiously. “That is Prince Lukiyo to you, Undine!”
Konomelu rose with a groan. “Luk?”
Behind him Nuno floated, defiant and scared.
“Nuno,” Konomelu exclaimed hoarsely
“Dad!” Nuno strained toward the cell. “Dad, I’m so sorry, I—”
“Silence!” Prince Lukiyo slashed a trident in Nuno’s face. Nuno jerked back. “Do not apologize to this traitor. He turned his back on his duty. On his king. It is a mistake you should not repeat.”
Nuno glared at Prince Lukiyo. “Don’t be crazy. This is my dad. You grew up with him. He was your first trainer, your—”
“Do not call me crazy. I am your prince.”
“They got inside your head. You even sound like them now.”
“Because it is my heritage. Thanks to my king, I have found my true purpose as prince and future ruler of Lusca.”
Nuno shook his head. “You’ve lost it.”
“I have gained everything. Their cowardice kept us on the land. Feelings weakened my father, and I am ruled by honor. Look at me.” He gestured at his tattoos. “A warrior. You will become one too. It is what we always wanted.”
“Not like this.”
“Free your mind, Nuno. The traitors no longer trap you inside the coral.”
“Mom and Dad didn’t keep me inside the coral. Your king did.”
“Because our fathers violated—”
“And they went inside the coral to snatch me. So they violated the rules, too.”
Prince Lukiyo scoffed at him. “My warriors would not do that.”
“Ask them.”
“No, no. I knew you would tire of being pent up on the island. Someday, you would break free, and when that happened, I would teach you. You would become a warrior with me. And it happened just as soon as I conveyed the order to Lieutenant Orike.”
“As soon as he got the okay to swoop in and steal me.” Nuno jutted his chin. “And if you thought I would ever worship an insane, bloodthirsty maniac like your king, you never really knew me at all.”
Prince Lukiyo crossed his arms. “Don’t be stupid, Nuno. Living so long on the surface has baked your brain.”
“Now you sound normal again.”
Prince Lukiyo straightened and lifted his chin. His vibrations lowered to a deeper, more royal tone. “Return to my castle. Enjoy my fruits, my steaks, my bounty. But beware. If you do not pledge yourself to my king, you will join the traitors in feeding the kraken.”
Prince Lukiyo called over two warriors who took Nuno away. He swam in front of the cells glaring at Ciran, a still-prone Itime, and Konomelu.
Konomelu watched soberly.
Prince Lukiyo sneered at him. “You used to say I would never belong here. But look at me. I am a true prince.”
Konomelu vibrated softly. “I regret that I was wrong.”
“Well, I regret nothing.” He slammed his palm on the bars. “You are the ones who should regret. Regret turning against my king! And you’ll get what you deserve, just like my father.”
Itime’s vibrations emerged, calm and placid as always, but with a more ragged edge of pain from the prone position in his cell. “Prince Ankena fell in love with your mother. They were soul mates. It is an undeniable bond. Your grandfather ordered him to kill her.”
“That is the past. You could have crawled back and begged his forgiveness. He would have taken us in and trained us as warriors.”
“We would have stranded your mother.”
“She served her purpose. And now she ruins Hadali, weakening him the same way Angie coddled and weakened Nuno.”
“If Bex heard your words, she would cry,” Konomelu said.
“What are you saying? My mother would never cry. And anyway, she never thinks of me.”
The warriors were silent. Some warriors stopped a conversation when more words were only noise.
Ciran was not one of those warriors.
“Actually,
” Ciran said, “Bex wanted to rescue you years ago.”
The prince flew to his cell. “Oh, really, foreign warrior? Then where is she?”
“They stopped her.” He indicated Konomelu and Itime. “Because they feared what your warriors would do if they caught her. And I think you’re afraid, too.”
“Ridiculous. I never think of her.”
“Is that why you told no one about her abilities?”
Prince Lukiyo frowned darkly and glanced over his shoulders, but they were alone. “I do not care. But if you care, do not say it aloud again.”
The lieutenant and the other warriors hadn’t realized anyone besides Dannika could breathe beneath the water, but all the young fry knew their mothers could swim and breathe as mer. Lukiyo surely knew. Which meant he’d kept it a secret all this time.
“Prince Lukiyo,” Ciran said, “most mer have unresolved feelings about our mothers. Mine gave me up as part of the ancient covenant. She bore me, gifted me to my father, and returned to the air world. But yours did not. They took you from her. She has not forgotten.”
Prince Lukiyo shook his head and kicked back. “Well, she should. I do not need her here. I do not care about her.”
“That is a pity because she still cares about you.”
“She loves you,” Konomelu said.
“Very much,” Itime said.
“And she was waiting for us to return. Unless you do something, she will come for you.”
“She will never come here.” He laughed, but the vibrations sounded harsh and forced. “You are so stupid, Ciran of Undine, or wherever you are from. So stupid. I have heard all about your plans from Nuno. Atlantis queens, and other fables. If you are so wise, then why are you in my prison?”
That was a really good question.
And it was one that Ciran had been thinking about for some time.
Like his plans to escape—which currently relied on the miraculous appearance of a friendly outside force, since he could not succeed on his own—he had reviewed every aspect of Nuno’s kidnapping.
He’d gone the wrong way.
Dannika was stronger with him. She needed him, relied on him. He kept telling her to have faith in her abilities, and he’d promised over and over that he would be her rock, her anchor, her pillar of support until she was ready to let that go and fly on her own.